


I Am Creativity

by DragonSaphiraReads



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: OC, blood mention, creativity twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-06-10 02:27:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 33,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19489660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSaphiraReads/pseuds/DragonSaphiraReads
Summary: Remus challenges Roman to a battle in the Imagination for the title of Thomas's Creativity. Turns out, the winner is not so easily defined.





	1. The Challenge

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea ever since DwIT came out - I'll return to The Selfish Protector and ATOtT as soon as this idea is complete!  
> Huge thanks to @strickenwithclairvoyance on tumblr for betareading this - It wouldn't be the story it was without you! 
> 
> This story includes my theory on who the orange side will be - Obsession. You can see this post for my entire theory on him! https://dragonsaphirareads.tumblr.com/post/186027399172/theory-the-next-side-is-obsession
> 
> A/N : If you're interested in listening to this story as an audiobook, you can now listen to this chapter as read by me! https://youtu.be/9yC9J7AxVPs

_“I knew you were insane but this is just ridiculous, Remus.”_

_“Aww, c’mon, I thought you liked my ideas!”_

_“This hardly counts as an idea - more like a suicide mission.”_

_“I’m more powerful than you think, Dee. I can handle my brother!”_

_“Don’t try and fool me. You’ve been losing power for weeks, what makes you think now is a good time for this stupid plan?”_

_“Deceit’s right - you need to wait until you have your strength back! I could step in and make Thomas tired so you’d be able to play with his nightmares!”_

_“Come on, you two, I’m Creativity! This idea will work, I can guarantee it!”_

_“You’ll be endangering Thomas. I can’t allow you to do this right now.”_

_“Well, it’s a good thing you can’t stop me then! This doesn’t have to do with Thomas knowing anything, so you’re out of your element here!”_

_“Argh... Obsession, say something, this cannot happen!”_

_“...You’re going to lose, Remus. You realize that, right?”_

_“I’ll do my best!”_

~~~

It was a quiet day in the mindscape. For once, the sides felt content. There were no huge issues in Thomas’s life that needed addressing, and they were able to spend some quality time together in the common area. Patton was flitting about in the kitchen, baking a fresh batch of cookies. Virgil was curled up in his chair and half asleep, warm and comfortable from lunch. Logan had a new book he was already halfway through, and Roman had a fresh script in his hands, already covered in his scrawling, curly handwriting. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be a day in the mindscape if something didn’t come to cause trouble. Specifically, this “something” came bouncing down the shadowy hallway that lead to the dark sides’ territory, his steps loud and obnoxious.

“Oh Roooomaaaaaan~” He called out in a singsong voice, putting those in the common room immediately on edge. Virgil shot up out of his chair and was on his feet in an instant, vaulting over the side of the couch to put himself between the newcomer and Roman. Patton froze, a tray of steaming cookies in his hands. Logan sighed, bookmarking his place and closing his book with a snap, standing and facing Remus calmly. 

The darker side of creativity waltzed right up to the couch, completely ignoring the defensive positions Virgil and Logan had taken. He stared right past them, grinning widely at his brother. “Roman!”

The prince sighed, not looking up from his script. Over the past few months, he’d grown less scared of his brother. Now, he was just a minor nuisance, even though his friends seemed to think otherwise. “What do you want? I’m busy, I don’t have time to mess around.”

“Aww, the great prince Roman doesn’t even have time to play a game with his only brother? And I came all this way!” Remus pouted, putting his fists on his hips. Roman glanced up, eyebrows raised. 

“A game? What are you talking about?” Remus grinned again at Roman’s question, and he spread his arms out widely.

“Why, none other than a duel of our minds! Just like old times! You do still remember how to play, don’t you?”

Roman squinted at him, putting down his script carefully on the coffee table. “Of course I do, I came up with it! But you haven’t wanted to play since you left, why are you showing your mustached mug now?”

“Whaaat, I can’t request a friendly game?”

Virgil stepped forward, getting in Remus’s face and sneering. “No, you can’t. Roman isn’t interested in playing any of your sick, twisted games. Now get out of here before we make you!”

“This doesn’t concern you, emo.” Remus said it with a smile, but his voice was cold. “Besides, you should hear me out. I think you’ll like this idea very much.”

Finally, Roman stood and walked over to his brother, crossing his arms and straightening his back to try and force any extra height he could. “Just tell me what you want.” Roman said, wanting to just listen to whatever bad idea his twisted brother had come up with and get it over with. 

The dark side grinned, flourishing his arms and putting his chin in his hand. “We’re both Creativity, aren’t we? But lately, Thomas doesn’t seem to need both of us. One would be more than enough. So, I’ve got a bet for you, my brother. We play our old game, by our rules, and whoever wins gets to be Thomas’s one and only Creativity! Sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn’t it?”

Virgil spluttered, holding a protective arm out in front of Roman. “No deal, you sneaky rat. Roman is already Thomas’s creativity, and he’s got nothing to gain and nothing to prove to you!”

“Virgil—“ Roman tried to say.

“I bet this is just another one of Deceit’s plans that you’re tagging along with, isn’t it? Well you can count us out, we’re not gonna play along with anything you want!”

“While I appreciate the credit, I’m not responsible for Remus’s actions this time around.” A smooth voice came from the dark hallway, and the sides whipped around to see Deceit and another shadowy figure lurking behind him. The snake had his arms crossed, and an uncharacteristic scowl across his face. “Let’s go, Remus.”

Remus giggled.

“He thinks this is a bad idea. But I didn’t _ask_ your opinion, did I?” Remus sneered towards his fellow dark side, to which he received rolled eyes. Patton winced, putting the tray of cookies down and pulling off his oven mitts slowly.

“You’re... not behind him being here?” He asked cautiously. Deceit shook his head, and behind him the other dark side snickered. 

“Oh no, I’m perfectly alright with sending one of my friends off when it’s certainly going to get them killed, I do it every week!” Deceit answered sarcastically, staring straight at Remus. 

“You have such little faith in me, I’m hurt!” Remus put a hand over his chest dramatically. Then he turned back to Roman, grinning madly. “C’mon, if Deceit thinks I’ll lose then I’ve got no chance! One game, Roman, and I’ll be out of your hair forever.”

Roman stared at his brother. His eyes were wide and teeth showing. On someone else perhaps it would look innocent, but not with Remus. He just looked wild. His own mind was racing, trying to figure out what in the world he wanted. 

He knew he had everything to lose in this wager. Thomas already considered him his “main” creativity, even after learning about Remus’s existence. His host had been happier than ever with his contributions, and he knew that losing this game would mean losing everything for Thomas. He could only guess what Remus would turn his channel into if given the chance. 

There was very little Roman could gain from this. If he could trust his brother’s word - which he knew he could, the one good thing about him was that he never lied - that would mean Remus would disappear. He wouldn’t show up when he wasn’t wanted, he wouldn’t make a fuss. He would stop messing with Roman’s ideas and leave Thomas alone for good from his unpleasant idea of ‘creativity’. 

For some reason, that thought made him angry. He opened his mouth to tell him off, to tell him to go back to his dark cave and leave him alone. 

“Roman, don’t you dare!” Virgil growled. The prince looked at him, nose wrinkled. Virgil really thought he’d be stupid enough to take this obvious bait? Sure, he was reckless, but even he wasn’t dumb enough to--

“Aww, would you look at that Roman? Your friends think you’re so weak you can’t even defeat little old me in a game _you_ created! Maybe they’re right though, it has been a long time, I might actually be stronger than you!”

“Excuse me?!” Roman screeched. 

“Roman!” Logan warned, his tone steely. He and Virgil both tried to hold out their arms to block him, but Roman stormed past them, getting up in his twin’s smirking face. 

“You are not and have never been better at creating than I am! I could beat you with both arms tied behind my back!” Roman immediately regretted his words as his brother’s smile grew, and he heard three collective groans from around the room. 

“Ooh, kinky~ Why don’t we put that to the test, then?” Remus waved his hand, and suddenly Roman found himself in the middle of a sunny field, squinting against the harsh light. Virgil and Logan landed unsteadily, and Patton stumbled and fell in a heap with a soft ‘oof’. A few steps away, Remus stood with the other dark sides behind him, who were trying to regain their balance as well. 

The Imagination. Roman swallowed. Shit, this was not what he’d meant to happen.

“So, dear brother of mine, we’re here! We just need to get you ready!” Remus grinned, waving his hand again and conjuring a length of rope and hanging it from his fingers lazily. Roman’s eyes widened, and he took a step back, trying to keep his voice strong. 

“I said I _could_ beat you with my arms behind my back, I never said I would! Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to see you beaten with me limiting myself like that? Don’t worry, I won’t go easy on you, so you’ll have an excuse ready when I win.” Roman tried not to notice Deceit’s eye twitching behind Remus. Curse him and his ability to detect lies.

The dark side of creativity rolled his eyes but let the rope drop, where it disappeared once it hit the ground. He looked vaguely disappointed, but shrugged. 

“You're no fun! Fine, it doesn’t matter. Your dull creations are no match for me, handicap or no. I’ll give you a few minutes to set your friends up with a viewing platform. I know they’ll want to watch as I beat your sorry butt into the ground!” He said with a laugh and a shoulder wiggle. 

Roman watched him for a moment before he felt a hand on his shoulder and he was spun around to meet face to face with a very angry Virgil. 

“What the _hell_ are you thinking, Princey!? Have you somehow forgotten that he’s the embodiment of Thomas’s bad creativity?! If you lose—“

“We’ll lose you!” Patton finished, grabbing Roman’s hand and gripping it tightly. There were tears in his eyes and his lip quivered. Roman winced. Did they really think he couldn’t do this?

“You two shouldn’t underestimate Roman.” Logan interjected, and Virgil whipped around to face the logical side.

“Roman got knocked out for an entire video because of him! Remus is strong, and—“

“And that only happened because we all failed to warn him of the threat until it was too late. Now he has a chance to prepare. Not to mention he created this game they’ll be playing, so I see no reason to worry.”

Patton pursed his lips. “What is this ‘game’ anyways?”

Roman smiled. “It’s just like he said - it’s a battle of our minds! We used to play it all the time as kids, before...” Roman licked his lips, shaking his head. “Well, anyways, it works like this.”

The creative side waved his hand and created a floating image, simulating a TV screen to help him explain. “I created the game as an exercise to practice creating things in the mindscape. The goal is to knock out your opponent using anything you can create in the Imagination.”

“When you say knock out, what do you mean exactly?” Logan asked. 

“I mean exactly what I said? If your opponent is unable to continue, then you win.” Usually it ended with a very big bruise on one of them, but he had a feeling Patton might object a lot more vehemently if he told him that. 

Roman waved his hand and a top down image of the field they were standing in appeared. “We split the field in two, and we have fifteen minutes to get ready. We can create anything we want in our area, whether it be to protect us or attack our opponent. After we’re done preparing, we start the fight!”

“So it’s not a battle of pure strength, but more a battle of wits?” Logan clarified, and Roman nodded. 

“That’s right! I can’t tell you how many times one of us has won even if we had fewer creations on our side!”

Patton twisted his fingers together nervously, biting his lip. “That sounds simple enough...”

“You said you played this before, right?” Virgil asked. Roman nodded. “How many times have you won?”

Roman huffed, planting his hands on his hips. “I am Thomas’s creativity! I created this game, and I am not going to lose to my brother on the other side! I don’t appreciate you doubting me, Virgil! The hero always prevails over the villain, so you have nothing to worry about!” 

Virgil glared at Roman, anger brewing in his eyes. Instead of wasting time continuing that argument, he turned away from his fellow sides and made a grand sweeping motion with his arms. 

A large pavilion tent shimmered into existence, staked into the ground and several comfortable lawn chairs underneath. He included more of the TV like screens so they could watch without getting too close. Roman knew they probably wouldn’t be happy about being put to the side, but it would help him focus if he knew they would be safe. 

“Now you’ll be able to relax as I earn my rightful title as Thomas’s creativity! Make yourselves comfortable, I’ll make this a showdown you won’t soon forget!”

Patton looked like he was about to cry as Virgil took his hand and pulled him towards the tent, keeping his own eyes fixed tightly in the ground. Roman took a breath, setting his shoulders back and cracking his neck, and turned towards the center of the field.

“Roman... are you certain about this?” Logan asked him gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. The prince signed, setting his jaw.

“I have to do this, Logan. This is the only chance we’re going to get to actually get rid of him. He makes Thomas upset, and if I can do something to help him, I’m going to do it.”

“Getting rid of a side of himself is not going to help him in the long run. Remus exists for a reason - if he’s gone, the balance we currently have will be thrown off. That could negatively affect you as well.”

Roman refused to look at him - Logan sounded worried about him. 

The hand on his shoulder tightened. “I... can’t stop you. But I beg you to reconsider this, Roman. I don’t want you to inadvertently hurt yourself in this endeavor.”

“I’ll be fine, Logan. Go sit down, I need to focus.” 

“Roman...”

“Go!” His voice cracked, and he ripped his shoulder away and walked off from his friends, trying to calm his racing heart. 

He couldn’t let their worries get to him. He was Prince Roman, the hero who would defeat his evil twin and bring peace to the land once again. It was what his life had been leading up to - a fitting end to their rivalry.

Why, then, did he feel so uneasy at that thought?

~~~

The playing field was set. It was about the size of a football field, with a waist high fence surrounded the entire area. There were two raised towers on either end for each of the twins to survey the field. Floating in the sky above them was a scoreboard with a timer, frozen on 15 minutes. 

Roman made his way to the center field line, marked with a green and red striped line. His brother was standing there, arms crossed and lips twisted into a smug grin. His morningstar was slung casually over his shoulder, and he tapped it impatiently as he waited. 

The prince held his shoulders back and chin high as he walked, showing no trace of the fear that was racing through his veins. He hadn’t had a ‘Creativity Battle’ in years, and while he was confident in his abilities in manipulating the Imagination, he knew Remus had also grown in power over the years. He couldn’t let his guard down for even a second, or it would be all over. 

“So, it comes to this. I can’t wait to see the look on your friends’ faces when I break you into little pieces like a princely pinata!” He broke into a deranged laugh, but Roman just shrugged. 

“Laugh all you want, Captain Hook, but you should know by now that good always prevails. You’re going to regret challenging me when I come out on top!”

Remus stepped forward and smirked, raising his free hand to pat Roman’s cheek. “Oh Roman, we both know you’re not a top.”

Roman groaned. “Enough! I cannot wait until I can say something without worry that you’ll twist my words like you always do!”

“Aww, you know you’ll miss me!”

“Quit bantering and let’s go!” A voice called from the sidelines, and Roman looked over to see Deceit and Obsession sprawled out on a tattered blanket laid on the grass - it was a far cry from the fancy pavilion Roman had conjured for his friends. Obsession had his hands cupped around his mouth and Deceit was snickering. 

Remus glanced from his fellow sides to his brother, and raised an eyebrow. “Ready?” He asked, a mischievous glint in his eye. Roman steadied himself, and looked Remus in the eyes. 

“Let the game begin!”


	2. A Battle of Creativity

The spectators watched as a bell rang and the timer started counting down. The twins sprinted to their respective towers, creating things out of thin air as they went. As they would expect, Roman’s army consisted of knights dressed in shining white armor and various mythical creatures. They couldn’t see Remus’s side as clearly, but what they could see was eldritch abominations with too many eyes and too many limbs.

Patton had curled his knees up to his chest, covering his eyes and peeking through his fingers to block out Remus’s creations, which made him sick to his stomach. Virgil and Logan were both leaning forward, fixated on the viewing screens for very different reasons.

“This is bad, this is bad, this is bad, this is bad…” Virgil kept repeating, breaths coming quicker. Logan leaned over and put his hand over Virgil’s, tapping out a 4-7-8 rhythm to try and keep him calm.

“He will be fine, Virgil. He’s Creativity, he’s stronger than any of us are here. This is his domain – I’m confident he will be victorious.” His voice was calm, but Virgil knew his heart was racing just as fast as his own.

“Don’t lie to me. You didn’t live with Remus, Logan, he’s… demented. Just look at what he’s coming up with!”

“And Roman is doing the same. They both operate on the same rules, Virgil, and one of those is that the Imagination is just that – imaginative. It’s not real.”

A wet roar echoed across the field, as well as a high-pitched laugh from Remus’s side of the field. Three minutes had already passed.

“Oh god oh god oh god!” Virgil felt his heart jump into his throat and he quickly covered his ears and closed his eyes, blocking out all images and trying to keep his own imagination under control. He needed to calm down – Thomas would have a panic attack at this rate, and considering his host wasn’t actually doing anything to deserve it, he really didn’t want it to come to that.

He felt arms around his shoulders and a chin resting on his head. When he opened his eyes, Virgil saw light blue and looked up to see Patton standing behind his chair, hugging him from behind. He was smiling, but his eyes were watering and lip quivering.

“It’s ok, Virgil. Roman’s so strong, he’ll win this without even a scratch!” Patton’s voice cracked at the end, and he swallowed and pushed his smile wider.

“Patton…”

“So don’t worry, ok? Remember, he’s just as powerful as we think he is – if we believe in him, then he can win!”

Virgil looked back at the field. Five minutes left, and there were now dozens of different creations on both sides. He changed a look at the viewing screen and saw Roman inside his tower, fortifying the doors with metal bars and hulking, armored guards. He was concentrating, his tongue poking out of the side of his mouth, but what really confused Virgil was that Roman seemed to be… smiling?

“He looks like he’s having fun.” Logan remarked calmly. “Perhaps we should just sit back and enjoy the fruits of Roman’s hard work.”

Patton sighed, nodding. “You’re… probably right.”

Virgil’s hand shot out and grabbed Patton’s before he could return to his own chair. “Um… stay?” The anxious side tapped on the chair and it shifted into a large, plush bean bag more than big enough for two. Patton smiled and plopped down beside Virgil, wrapping a comforting arm around his shoulders.

“We can cheer him on together.”

~~~

“He’s an idiot.”

“And you didn’t know this before?”

Deceit sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I thought there was still a little common sense left in that twisted head of his. I was clearly wrong.”

Obsession tilted his head, glancing over at the field and surveying the multitudes of disgusting creatures that were standing on Remus’s side, growling and slobbering everywhere. “And we both know how well you take to being wrong.”

Deceit glared at him out of the corner of his eye. “And you do?”

“I don’t sulk in my room for days when I don’t get my way.”

“No, you just throw yourself into the next show and fill your brain with garbage.”

Obsession just laughed, stretching his arms high into the air and laying back on the blanket, blades of grass tickling his arms through the thin material. “Just ‘cause you don’t see the genius in what I do doesn’t change the fact that Thomas loves it when I do my job. Unlike someone else I know.” He closed his eyes against the bright sun, soaking in the warmth that never made its way into their corner of the mind. Deceit growled and said things Obsession was sure were very pleasant words for him under his breath.

“Besides, who said you were wrong?”

“What? Have you been paying attention?”

“Have you? Deceit, as much as you love to think you’re the only one who can plot and plan… you’re not.”

Deceit stared at his fellow dark side, unconvinced. “When has Remus thought about or planned anything? He does whatever he wants, when he wants.”

Obsession sighed, rolling his eyes. He propped himself up on one elbow and stared at Deceit. “What would you call this, then?” The orange clad side waved towards the field, where they could see Remus ducking behind various barricades and creating new monsters.

“What’s your point?” Deceit narrowed his eyes. Obsession shrugged.

“Just that, maybe you shouldn’t underestimate him so much. Don’t forget, I’ve known him a lot longer than you have, and I knew him as a kid. Let me tell you… he’s a lot smarter than you seem to think he is.”

“If you’re so smart, why don’t you tell me what he’s really planning, then?” Deceit asked sarcastically. “Since you can clearly read his mind and all that. What’s the point of fighting a battle you know you can’t win?”

Obsession yawned, glancing at the clock. Thirty seconds to go. From what he understood, as soon as the timer hit zero, it would be an all-out battle royale. They couldn’t create anything past the time, relying only on their current creations. On Remus’s side was a huge, fleshy dragon with eyes all over his body, two heads and two sets of wings curled up on the top of his tower, puffing out black smoke from its nostrils. The rest of his army seemed to follow a similar theme; nothing that Obsession could see had the correct number of limbs.

Roman, on the other hand, had gone with a strength in numbers strategy. There were hundreds of white knights covering every inch of his side. The side himself was standing on the roof of his tower, head tilted up to watch the timer count down to zero.

“Maybe… winning for Roman, and winning for Remus, means two different things.”

Before Deceit could ask what he meant by that, a sharp bell rang out over the field, and the real fight began.

~~~

Looking over the battlefield as the fight began, Roman felt confident. Sure, the monsters his brother had come up with were disgusting, and the dragon on his tower was terrifying, but he outnumbered his brother’s army 5 to 1. They were smaller, yes, but that meant they were faster and quieter. Not to mention they could hide.

His hand hovered over his own sword hilt, ready to draw it at a moment’s notice. He had guards stationed around the tower and within the stairs themselves, but he couldn’t trust that to protect him.

There was an ear-splitting screech from above him and he drew his sword just as a multi-headed falcon dived at him, effectively cutting itself in two as it attacked. It fell to the ground with a plop, and exploded into black dust.

Like he was saying, he had to be on guard. He glanced at the screen he’d conjured to monitor his own troops. Most were engaged with monsters triple their size, and there was white dust covering the grass. He pursed his lips as one of the creatures, something that resembled an armadillo if an armadillo had metal plating and was the size of a small house, grabbed one of his knights and threw it in its mouth, chopping down like it was a savory snack.

He hoped his friends would be able to handle watching this. Logan would probably find it fascinating, but all of this would be distressing for Patton and Virgil. He only hoped they knew that this was completely fake – if the dust their creations exploded into when they died didn’t make that clear. It was no different than a movie. The only person on his team who could feel any pain or get hurt was himself.

Maybe that was what they were worried about.

Roman tensed as he heard a ferocious roar split the air and saw the two headed dragon lift off from Remus’s tower. The beat of its wings flattened the grass underneath the tower, and as it took off the left head unhinged its jaw and sprayed a battalion of his knights with a thick, inky black substance.

“Ugh, leave it to him…” Roman muttered, gagging. Then the right head opened its maw and fire came spilling out. The black liquid covering his knights caught, and within moments they were nothing but dust, mixed with the oil-like substance to create a nasty gray goop.

Roman sucked in a breath through his teeth, and then saw the dragon turn its body towards his tower. “Nope, nope, nope!” He chanted, sprinting to the edge of the tower. Going down the stairs was too slow and too dangerous. Thankfully, the prince knew to always have an alternate escape route.

The creative side ran to a parapet where there were thick lengths of vine tied to the stone, dangling all the way to the ground. He grabbed the gloves he’d conjured for this very situation and slipped them on, then swung his leg over the edge and gripped the vine tightly. The dragon flew overhead and nearly blew him away with the strength of its wings, but he held fast. It made another pass as he was sliding down, and more oil spilled out of the left head’s mouth. It splattered all over him and steamed on his skin.

Worst of all, the oil got onto the vine and underneath his gloves. He started sliding faster, his grip faltering, and as the dragon got ready to torch him, he lost it altogether.

Roman landed hard on his back, and his lungs seized at the impact. The prince forced himself to his feet, gasping for air as the oil on the tower was lit up and he was forced to run to avoid the same fate.

He clutched his side as he ran. He didn’t think he’d broken a rib, but he certainly would have a nasty bruise. One of many to come, he’d wager. Roman ran to the side of the tower where he’d created a small oasis to house one of his secret weapons.

~~~

Remus had a wide, manic smile on his face. God, he hasn’t had this much fun in forever! He watched the flames consume Roman’s tower, and sent his dragon after him. He couldn’t see which direction his brother had run off in, but that didn’t matter too much to a fire breathing dragon. He’d burn the whole area down if he needed to – he would just return it to normal after the fight.

Then he caught something on the wind. A sound floating in the air - a song. He could barely hear it, but Remus noticed that his dragon was shaking its heads in confusion, trying to get away from whatever it was hearing. He tried to call it back, but his control had lapsed and it wouldn’t listen to him. The creature raged, spewing oil and fire into the sky before crashing against the force field surrounding their arena and exploding into dust. 

Silence fell over the field, and the twins realized that this round was over, with both left standing. They reconvened in the center after they cleared their areas of all leftover debris. 

Remus crossed his arms and looked Roman over smugly. “You’ve lost your touch. You didn’t even manage a single hit on me!”

Roman huffed, keeping a hand on his hip to try and subtly keep pressure on his side without letting his brother know he was hurt. “Neither did you. Are you even trying? That was such a boring round, I nearly fell asleep!”

“Oh, alright, then let’s make things quick! Ten minutes, and this time it won’t be a warmup!” Remus cheered, pointing at the clock above them and resetting the time, which immediately started counting down. Roman squawked in protest but Remus just laughed and ran off, leaving the prince standing there with his side aching and the clock ticking down. 

_“What are you doing, Princey? Move!!”_ He heard Virgil’s voice scold him in his head, and that jolted him enough to head back to his own tower, newly reformed, and come up with another plan of attack. 

~~~

“He looks tired...” Patton said quietly, watching through the screen as Roman went about preparing for the second round. “He’s holding his side... do you think he’s hurt?”

“He did fall a distance when escaping from the tower, it’s possible he’s injured one or more of his ribs.” 

The moral side let out a strangled cry, cupping his hands over his mouth to try and keep it in. Virgil stared at the back of Logan’s head with wide eyes. “Logan, do you even care?!”

“Of course I do. But Roman did very well in that last round. He ended it with a tie, and now he surely has a better idea of Remus’s strategies. Now he’s able to incorporate that knowledge into this next round.”

“That’s all good in theory, but look at him! He doesn’t exactly look like he’s up for another fall from the tower!” Virgil pointed at the screen, where Roman was leaning up against a tree, eyes closed and chest heaving. 

“Creating takes energy. But the same goes for his opponent. I’m sure Remus is just as tired as Roman is.”

“Yeah but, Logan, he might hurt himself if he’s too tired. Can’t we just... stop this?”

“I doubt either of them would allow that at this point. We simply need to... ride it out, so to speak. And provide him support from here.”

Patton whined, shifting to bury his face against Virgil’s neck. Virgil patted his shoulder awkwardly, watching in silence as Roman ducked in and out of view on the screen. Instead of a relatively open field like he’d made before, now he was growing a thick forest with a canopy so thick it cast dark shadows across the creative side’s face. 

“What is he doing? Remus literally made a fire-breathing dragon last time, that forest is just going to burn!” Virgil said, crossing his arms. As he said it, Roman stumbled and fell, to loud gasps. There wasn’t sound from their viewing screens, but as the creative side stood back up they could hear him shouting and cursing in his Disney way as water dripped down his face and his clothes were soaking wet. 

“I believe he’s already thought of that, Virgil.” 

Despite himself, the anxious side couldn’t help but snicker. 

“Idiot.”

~~~

Remus shifted his weight back and forth, tapping the handle of his morningstar impatiently. The time was nearly out, but he hadn’t seen his brother emerge from the dense forest he’d created.

He cocked his head and the corners of his mouth twitched into a devious grin. So, he wanted to play hide and seek? That was fine with him – he’d just have to smoke him out.

The timer hit zero and the signal blared. Remus raised an arm and shouted, sending his misshapen, vaguely humanoid army running forward. He heard cries of shock and disgust from the sidelines and smirked – they just didn’t appreciate the human body in its most natural form!

Remus put his fingers to his mouth and let out a shrill whistle, and after a moment the buzz of huge insect wings echoed from behind him. Without even looking, he hopped onto the giant dragonfly and lifted into the air, leading the charge towards the forest.

An unstable laugh ripped its way from his chest and Remus relished this feeling, of the adrenaline rushing through his veins and the wind tearing his hair every which way. He pointed down at the center of the forest and his mount rained fire onto the lush greenery below. The trees caught instantly, and Remus laughed as they turned from green to pure black, fading into dust and ash in their air. His brother was down there somewhere, and he would find him, and finally…

There was an explosion, and Remus nearly lost his balance as a geyser erupted right next to him, showering him with freezing water. His dragonfly mount dodged to the side, its wings damp and heavy. He looked down at the forest to see his glorious fire had all but disappeared, drenched by the multiple streams of water that had exploded into the air.

Remus sneered. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy. He shook his head and let water droplets fly before commanding the dragonfly to hover over the forest, jumping into a tree and climbing down to the forest floor.

It was quiet. The duke took a few steps forward, trying to see around the thick tree trunks. He snickered quietly to himself. That would be a good one for Thomas later.

His boots squished into a puddle of something and Remus lifted his boot to examine it. There was a watery black liquid seeping into his shoe, and the dark side realized that it was the dust of his creations that had mixed with the water from the geyser.

He looked around again. What had happened? He’d made his own army fireproof, so they couldn’t have burned from him, and there was nothing around here that explained what could have destroyed them.

The duke set his jaw. Well then, maybe his brother _was_ capable of playing a little dirty. He grabbed his morningstar and rested it over his shoulder, following the faint buzz of insect wings to find his way out, using his weapon to whack any tree branches or loose brush out of his path.

Instead, Remus found his way into a clearing of trees, with a fake mesh of leaves cast over the top to disguise it from above. The trees surrounding the area were twisted together, branches forming a protective barrier to keep people out. But then, it also meant that it could keep people in.

“Oh Roman!~ I know you’re here! You’re just too predictable!” Remus called out, swinging his morningstar back and forth. “Come on, let’s just get this over with, you’re clearly not fit to be Thomas’s Creativity if you’re hiding from little old me!”

There was a laugh from across the clearing, and Remus saw a poorly defined shadow sitting in one of the trees. “I thought you were a little smarter than to just walk into something like this! I mean, come on Rem, this is obviously a trap!”

Remus heard a strange creaking from behind him and a tree branch suddenly snaked its way around his waist and lifted him off the ground. His morningstar clattered to the ground and he cursed wildly, flailing his legs to no avail. Of course, moving trees! That must have been what the whole forest was made of!

The prince hopped down from the tree and strutted over, hands on his hips and a triumphant smirk on his face. “I can’t believe that worked as well as it did. Seriously? I pulled this same trick when we were kids!”

Remus winced in pain, though he tried to hide it with a wide toothed smile. “Who says this isn’t exactly what I wanted to happen?”

Roman rolled his eyes and drew his sword, ready to end this fight.

Remus winced again, gritting his teeth. He kicked his feet forward and caught Roman’s shoulder, shoving him back. The momentum loosened the branch’s hold on his waist and he dropped out of its grip.

The dark side grinned, rolling and grabbing the handle of his morningstar. Roman stumbled, head snapping up just as Remus swung upwards, upper cutting his chin with the heavy weapon. Warmth blossomed in his mouth as he bit down hard on his cheek and blood poured onto his tongue.

Roman fell onto his back, head spinning. He blinked stars out of his vision and was met with a maniacal smile aimed down at him. Remus raised his morningstar above his head, and Roman willed his leaden limbs to move. He couldn’t let this happen – He was Prince Roman, he could not be defeated like this!

The prince twisted his entire body, using the momentum to throw his arm up and swipe at Remus with his sword. His grip was terrible, but it would do. Remus jumped back and dropped his weapon behind him, but he wasn’t fast enough as the blade’s edge ripped through him.

Literally, through him. Roman, expecting resistance and finding none, was carried by his momentum and rolled onto his stomach. He pushed himself to his knees and spat red into the grass, staring wide-eyed at his brother. “You just… I hit you! That’s not fair!”

“No you didn’t!” Remus laughed, dancing away and laughing. Roman stood slowly, unsteady on his feet and using his sword to stabilize himself.

“Yes, I did. How did you do that? My sword went straight through you!”

Remus shrugged, retrieving his morningstar. “You didn’t hit me, Roman, what can I say?” He smirked, slinging it over his shoulders.

The prince shook his head, prodding at his sore chin and checking for blood. “You can say that you cheated!”

“I didn’t cheat, there’s nothing in the rules about dodging an attack!”

“That wasn’t dodging, you went full on ghost mode! I didn’t even know we could do that!”

“You can’t…” Remus said under his breath. Then he huffed and rolled his eyes. “Fiiiine, if you really think I cheated, we’ll call this one a draw. And you know what? I’ll even let you take a break, you look like you’re ready to crawl into a hole and die.”

Roman growled, straightening his back despite his body’s protest. “Oh yeah? What’s the matter, scared that I’ll beat you like this?”

Remus just laughed and turned on his heel, waving an arm over the forest around him and making it disappear into dust that glittered in the wind. “Third times a charm, Roman, but who’s charm will it be?”

The prince watched his brother dissipate his creations, feeling weight lift from his body as the strain of keeping it up lightened. He sighed in relief, turning to go back to his friends and sit for a moment.

“Roman!” Worried voices called as he approached the pavilion, and he subtly tried to spit another mouthful of blood into the grass before he got too close. Patton ran up to him, checking over his face and wiping away the blood dripping down his chin with the edge of his cardigan sleeve.

“Pat, your sweater-“

“That’s not important! Roman, don’t ever do that again! I nearly passed out!” Patton scolded, though its impact was lessened slightly by the crack in his voice and tears in his eyes. 

“Is your chest alright? I saw you holding it earlier.” Logan asked, stepping forward and pulling Patton away from his fussing calmly. Roman gently prodded the sore spot and nodded, wincing.

“Just a bruise, I don’t think anything’s broken.” Not that he would tell them if it was. He had to finish this, but if Patton knew he’d gotten hurt that bad, he’d drag Roman to his room and make him stay there for a week. Logan nodded, not fully convinced.

“And your head?” Virgil interjected. “I saw you spit blood, Princey, you’re not ok!” 

“Yes, I am! That hit just made me bite my cheek and it bled a little, ok?” Roman opened his mouth to show them that the bleeding had already stopped. “I’m fine. I just need to sit for a minute and then I’m gonna kick his butt into next week!”

The other three shared a look. 

“Roman, you... don’t have to do this alone.”

“I know I’m not as good with the Imagination as you are, but if I could just do something to help!” Patton pleaded. Roman shook his head, then groaned at the action. 

“No... No, I can’t risk you guys getting hurt. Besides, this is between us. This is what everything’s been leading to, all these years. It’s the only fitting end for the two of us. Ever since we were kids...”

He trailed off. Patton bit his lip, glancing at Logan who sighed quietly. Virgil looked between the two of them, confused. 

“This is my fight. I appreciate you guys wanting to help me, I do, but... this isn’t something you can really help with. We need to settle our differences, and this... is really the only way we know how.”

“Violence should not be the answer!”

“There is no other answer with Remus. What I need right now is to come up with a plan. A strategy. Logan?”

The logical side adjusted his glasses, taking in how battered and exhausted Roman looked. He was struggling to even stand - Logan doubted he was up for creating much more. 

“Leave it to me.”

~~~

“You hesitated.” 

Remus tilted his head at Obsession, who was staring at him evenly. “Whatever do you mean?”

“When you were standing over Roman. You could have finished it right there. But you didn’t.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement of fact. Deceit nodded, eyes narrowed as he tried to search Remus’s face for answers he was not going to give.

The dark side of creativity threw his head back and laughed. “I think you need your eyes checked, Obsession.”

The orange clad side adjusted his glasses. “I may be blind, but I’m not stupid. I know you, Remus, and I know what you’re capable of. You’re going easy on him.”

Remus just rolled his eyes and looked over at Deceit with an amused smile. “Can you believe him? Have I ever gone easy on anyone?”

Deceit smiled. “I’ve never seen it before. Tell me, do you have a plan for this round? You know, it’s cruel to keep dragging it out like this.”

Remus pursed his lips and shrugged. “I’ll just do whatever I feel like!”

“Nothing new then. Come on now, Obsession and I are getting incredibly bored over here, can’t you do something interesting?” Deceit leaned forward, chin in his hand. Remus tapped his morningstar against his hand, thinking, but as the other dark sides watched, the handle missed his hand and swung down to the ground. Remus stumbled, planting it on the ground to regain his balance and leaning against it.

No, Deceit realized. He didn’t miss catching it. It had gone straight through his hand. And now, Remus’s face seemed to be glowing. It took a moment to realize that it wasn’t his complexion, but rather the sun shining down and somehow _through_ him.

“Well, I should get back to it. This will be the last round, so you two just sit tight, alright? This’ll be quick.”

“Are you sure this is what you want, Remus?” Obsession asked quietly. The dark side chuckled, turning away from them.

“You couldn’t have asked that a bit sooner? It’s a little too late to back out now. I’m out of time, we’re finishing this now!” The creative side turned and shouted to his brother in the pavilion, pointing back at the field with vigor. There was a call back, and Roman started back towards the field.

Deceit watched him walk away, morningstar swinging at Remus’s hip, and sighed. “Looks like you were right.”

Obsession stifled a snicker. “I think I just heard your ego shatter, Dee.” He then grew somber, watching Remus walk away. “That was it, wasn’t it?”

The lying side nodded, picking at the edge of his gloves. “We’re not going to see him after this.”

He hummed in agreement, pushing up his glasses and rubbing at his eyes. The side glanced at Deceit. “You gonna miss him?”

Deceit smiled. “Absolutely not.”

“Hmph. Liar.”

~~~

The twins agreed on fifteen minutes to prepare, and the onlookers noticed a distinct difference between their strategies. As soon as the timer started Roman had darted onto his own side and into his tower, hiding what he was creating from his brother.

Meanwhile, Remus was leisurely wandering around his side, absently growing a wall or creating a gruesome creature every so often. He carried an air of indifference, a change from his eagerness from before. He stood tall, but the dark sides sitting on the sidelines knew, perhaps instinctively, that something was off.

The former dark side sitting with Logan and Patton noticed it too. While his friends’ eyes were glued to the screen, watching Roman put his plan into action, Virgil kept his eyes locked on Deceit and Obsession.

He couldn’t tell exactly from where he was sitting, but the look on Deceit’s face almost looked… disappointed? Upset, even? It had to be an act, Virgil had never known the lying side to show his emotions clearly. Has Remus said something during the little break? 

Deceit’s head turned towards the pavilion, and Virgil’s head snapped back to the screen, heart racing. Did he know he was being watched? No, it must have just been a coincidence. 

Still though, he didn’t look back over after that. Just in case. 

“Is he gonna make it?” Patton’s voice brought Virgil back to the present, and he glanced up at the screen. 

“It’s going to be close... as long as he followed the structure I set, he should be fine. He should have created his most important pieces first. The rest is additional support.” Logan tapped his chin, eyes locked on the screen. 

“Thirty seconds left...”

Roman looked up from his work and clapped his hands, smiling. 

“He’s done!” Patton cheered, leaping from his seat and throwing his hands in the air. Virgil saw a small smile grow on Logan’s face. 

“He’s still got to actually do the fight, you know, he’s not done yet.” Virgil added. 

“Everything will be alright, Virgil.” Logan reassured before the bell rang out over the field, and they all leaned into the screen. This was it. 

~~~

Roman’s chest was heaving. Even though he hadn’t created nearly as much as he had the past two rounds, his entire body was screaming at him to stop, to let it go and rest. He leaned heavily against the parapet, commanding his knights to march forward onto Remus’s side. 

His brother’s side of the field was suspiciously barren; even with Roman’s lack of energy, he’d managed to create dozens more than his brother. Yet, the dark creative side wasn’t showing any signs of exhaustion or pain that Roman was feeling. He wasn’t even barricading himself in his tower! 

Instead, he wandered around his side of the field casually, his morningstar stuck through his belt. Roman kept a careful eye on him as he sent his knights forward, taking out the few monsters blocking the way. 

The dark side didn’t seem worried, and as Roman’s front lines advanced, he realized why. 

An ear-splitting explosion rocked the Imagination, and both Roman and the spectators alike slapped their hands to their ears. The only one unbothered was Remus, who merely started laughing as he saw Roman’s first line of troops reduced to white dust. 

The prince’s eyes widened. Shit, he had explosives planted? No wonder he didn’t have monsters above ground - the real danger was below!

His knuckles went white from gripping the stone of the tower. Logan had taken a lot of things into account but landmines hadn’t been one! 

Roman closed his eyes, willing his army forward. He refused to split them into smaller groups, even though it would mean he would lose less to an explosion. As long as he could just get one group through, that would be enough. 

Another explosion shook the field, and Roman winced at the puff of white smoke that rose into the air. Two down. It was fine, he mumbled to himself. His secret weapon was still in play. 

A grotesque creature that looked to be part snake, part tentacled monster slithered up behind Remus. The dark side glanced back at it for a moment curiously. Roman’s heart was racing. Just a little more... 

Remus turned away as another, smaller explosion shook the ground. As his eyes turned towards the horizon, the monster shifted into one of Roman’s white knights holding a morningstar high above its head. 

Even if the dark sides had wanted to warn him, there wasn’t a moment to cry out before the knight swung, clocking Remus on the side of his head. The dark side’s eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed onto the ground, unmoving. A bell rang out after a few moments.

It was over. Roman had won. 

The wall around the field dissipated, and the rest of the twins’ creations crumbled to dust, leaving Remus curled up on the ground and Roman bent over, breathing hard but still standing. 

The light sides ran over to him, with Patton tacking Roman in a hug and lifting him off the ground. Roman groaned, his ribs screaming in agony. 

“P-Pat! Easy! Chest!”

Patton gasped and let him down, hands moving to grip his arms carefully. “Sorry, kiddo! I’m just so proud of you!”

That nearly made Roman burst into tears right then and there, and he ducked his head to hide his face. “Thanks, padre. I... I’m... I did it.”

“Yeah, you did. Don’t do it again.” Virgil warned, hands in his pockets. Roman just laughed, slinging an arm around Virgil’s shoulders and bringing the anxious side into a one-armed hug. 

“Aw, you can say you were worried about me, storm cloud!”

“Of course I was...” Virgil mumbled into his chest, returning the hug quickly before stepping back. Logan put his hand on Roman’s shoulder, a rare smile on his face. 

“Well done, Roman.”

The creative side blushed - it was high praise from Logan. “Thanks, teach.”

“So, does this mean you’re Thomas’s only Creativity now?” Patton glanced over to the other side of the field, where Remus was lying. His voice was quiet. “What... what will happen to him?”

Logan pursed his lips. “It will not be good for Thomas to only have ‘good’ imagination,” he put air quotes around the word good. “It will be up to Roman to take over Remus’s responsibilities as well as his own.”

“But... Roman’s Thomas’s good creativity! How is he supposed to do that?!” 

The logical side huffed. “Patton, I’ve said this before, but things are not that simple. Life is not black and white and although it might be a difficult task for Roman at the beginning, it will be dangerous for Thomas if he doesn’t!”

“Logan, Roman’s not going to be able to do that!” Virgil piped up. 

Roman tuned his friends out, eyes darting between the dark sides still sitting on their blanket, and his brother lying on the ground. Somehow, it didn’t surprise him that Deceit and Obsession hadn’t moved from their spot, and seemed to not even be bothered that Remus was still unconscious on the ground.

Roman huffed, and held his head high as he walked over to his brother, who was staring up at the sky with a glassy expression. Roman leaned down and offered him a hand.

“Come on, get up.”

The dark side blinked. “What?” 

Roman rolled his eyes, reaching down and grabbing his brothers hands, trying to pull him to his feet. “Would you rather lay there and get your outfit dirty? I’m trying to be nice.”

Remus allowed himself to be pulled into a sitting position, but refused to go any further. “Why?”

The light side huffed, hands on his hips. “Because that’s what a prince does, got it? It was a close game and I wanted to thank you. It was... fun.”

Remus blinked. “You... thought it was... fun?”

“Well, not all of it, but... well, it’s like you said. Old times, right?” Roman scratches the back of his neck, looking away as Remus got onto his feet unsteadily. “You fought well.”

The dark side stared at him, chest heaving. “I...”

Roman grinned, meeting Remus’s incredulous stare. “I can’t believe this, you’re actually speechless. You haven’t stopped talking since you showed up.”

“Roman...”

He opened his mouth to respond, but Remus suddenly threw his arms tightly around Roman’s shoulders, and the prince tensed.

“What are you doing? I swear to everything if you stab me in the back I will...”

A faint laugh echoed in Roman’s ear, and Remus tightened his hug. “Not this time.”

After a moment, Roman relaxed and gingerly returned it. After several more tense moments, another whisper, this time so faint Roman barely caught what was said.

“Take care of Thomas.”

It took a moment for the words to register in his mind, but as soon as they were uttered, Remus’s steadfast grip disappeared completely and Roman’s arms closed in on himself, going straight through the side he’d just embraced. 

“Remus, what—!”

The dark side smirked, stepping back despite Roman’s desperate attempts to grab him again. “It’s time. Have fun being Creativity.”

Then, as if he were simply one of Roman’s own creations, he disintegrated into shimmering white dust, carried away from Roman’s frozen form on a gentle breeze.

“R-Remus? Hey, this isn’t funny! Get back here! You can’t just... that can’t be... that’s it? All that and you just leave?! Remus, show yourself!”

Roman shouted into empty air, grasping at the dust that floated lazily around him, desperately hoping that his brother would reform if he could just gather it all. 

His eyes and chest burned. For years he’d been dreaming of this moment, when he would finally vanquish the evil within Thomas and bring peace. But this felt nothing like those daydreams, where he touted his victory and swore that the other dark sides would be next. He didn’t feel happy or excited by this.

He felt devastated. His breath started coming faster until he was hyperventilating. Roman’s legs were jelly and he collapsed into a heap on the plush grass.

Remus was gone. 

Half of Thomas’s Creativity was gone.

His brother was _gone_. 

As soon as that thought hit him, he found he couldn’t hold back the tears any longer, and he sobbed freely, crying and pleading for the world to please just bring his annoying, crude, selfish brother back.

~~~

Patton and Logan sprinted to Roman’s side as soon as he collapsed, Patton offering a shoulder to cry on for the distraught prince. Virgil, on the other hand, had a bone to pick.

The anxious side stalked over to the tattered picnic blanket where Deceit and Obsession were chatting amongst themselves, as if they were out and about on a stroll rather than being moments after their supposed comrade and friend was turned to dust. Virgil stopped in front of Deceit, glaring down at him with hate in his eyes. 

“What’s wrong with you?!”

Deceit glanced up casually, pursing his lips. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I knew you were a cold hearted bastard but even you have to feel something about all this! You just lost Remus! He’s gone! Why are you just sitting here!?”

“Crying and screaming about it isn’t going to bring him back.” Deceit answered.

“Besides, Remus knew what he was getting into when he challenged Roman. If anything, he got what he deserved.” Obsession added, pushing his glasses up. Virgil’s chest was about to explode from rage.

“ _Got what he deserved!?_ God damn it Obsession, I knew he was a cruel asshole but I thought you were capable of some goddamn empathy!”

Obsession shrugged. “He got what he wanted. I don’t see why I should feel sorry for him.”

“Oh, I believe he got even more than what he wanted, if you want my honest opinion.” Deceit was smirking now, hand over his heart. Virgil took a step back, suddenly on guard.

“What do you mean?”

Obsession gestured behind Virgil. “See for yourself.”

Virgil was loath to turn his back on these two very large threats, but when he heard a scream not of anguish but of pure agony, he whipped around and his blood ran cold.

Roman was curled in on himself, hands over his ears, mouth open in a scream that he couldn’t force out. Patton tried to touch him but Roman jerked away as if burned by the touch. Virgil couldn’t move, until Deceit hissed from behind him.

“You were just calling us cruel for standing by while our friend died, but look at you. Frozen like a deer in headlights while poor Roman is in absolute agony. That’s not a very friendlike thing to do, Virgil.”

Virgil swallowed nasty words that he wanted to hurl at both of them and took off in a sprint, ignoring the laughter behind him. 

“Roman!!” The anxious side screamed as he ran, forcing himself to go faster. When he reached the prince, his hands flew to his mouth in shock.

On the creative side’s pure white back, there was a stain of oily black over his heart. And before Virgil’s very eyes it began to spread out, edges blurring as it consumed the creative side entirely.

Roman seized, sucking in a breath before his eyes rolled back into his skull and he crumpled into a heap in Patton’s arms, the pain becoming too much.

“Roman!!!”


	3. Friends, Enemies, Brothers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is long. Like, it's over 14k words. Please take breaks if you need it, and feel free to ask questions if anything is confusing. It could have been a lot longer with all the ideas I had, so I'll probably be creating a side story here on AO3 for all the scenes I had to leave out.  
> Please go give some love to @strickenwithclairvoyance on tumblr. Ell had been working with me on this chapter for over a month now and this would not be as good as it is without their help.

The soft scratch of a pencil on paper was the only sound in the room, punctured occasionally by the harsh rip and crumple of paper. 

The young kid sitting at the desk groaned, putting his pencil down and rubbing at his eyes. He glanced at the waste basket next to his desk and pouted when he saw it was overflowing, crumpled balls of paper strewn all over the floor. 

He huffed. He would come up with a good idea for storytime tomorrow. He would come up with the best story any of Thomas’s classmates had ever heard. He just... needed to focus. 

Footsteps came down the hall and stopped outside his door. The young kid panicked, switching off his lamp and hurling himself across the room onto his bed, kicking the blanket over himself as his visitor slowly opened the door. 

“Creativity? Are you still awake?”

He tried to steady his breathing, to pretend he was asleep. 

“I can see you’re still wearing your day clothes, Creativity, you aren’t fooling me.”

Dang it, he was busted. Creativity sat up in his bed, pouting at his bespeckled visitor.

“I was just trying to brainstorm for tomorrow! Just a little longer, Logic, I know I can come up with something good!” The young kid insisted. Logic shook his head. 

“Thomas needs to sleep, and he can’t do that if you’re keeping him awake and giving him ideas. Just go to bed, you can work on it tomorrow.”

“But Logiiiiiiic!”

“Don’t make me get Morality.”

Creativity huffed, collapsing back on the bed. “Fiiiine!” He whined. 

“Good night, Creativity.”

Creativity didn’t respond, instead rolling over and facing away from the door, pouting. Logic just rolled his eyes and left, closing the door quietly. 

Creativity laid there and listened for Logic’s footsteps to leave, and when he heard a door close he leapt out of bed and dove for his desk, switching on the lamp and going back to his notetaking. He _would_ come up with something for Thomas tonight, so he could sleep peacefully. 

After about an hour, Creativity was nodding off, head bobbing up and down as he tried desperately to stay awake. The notebook in front of him was still blank and the waste basket’s contents had only grown. All the ideas that had popped into his head were immediately rejected by Thomas, and he was just tired. 

His head hit the desk with a soft thunk and Creativity started snoring. 

Soon after he fell asleep, the kid started whimpering. His eyes darted around under his eyelids, and he curled his hand over his heart. His breath became shallow and he started hyperventilating, his body heating up uncomfortably. 

There was a loud crash, and Creativity started awake to see the sun streaming through his window and a small puddle of drool that had seeped into the paper. His heart raced, and Creativity felt like there was a hole in his chest. 

A quiet cough startled him, and when he looked down at the floor he couldn’t believe his eyes. 

There was another kid lying on the floor, next to the upset waste basket which had probably made the loud noise. He wore the same outfit as Creativity, though it was gray rather than white. Creativity watched as he sat up, rubbing at his eyes sleepily. 

“Who... who are you?”

The kid on the floor looked up. “Me? I’m Creativity.”

“H-huh?! You can’t be Creativity! I’m Creativity!”

The gray-clad kid stood up, putting his hands on his hips. “Yes I can, because I am!”

“No you’re not!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No--”

“Creativity, who are you talking to?” 

Logic’s voice came from the door, and the two arguing kids looked at each other with wide eyes. 

“Uh... myself?” The original Creativity said, and the other snickered. 

“Alright then... Morality’s making breakfast. I’m going to wake Passion.” 

“Ok!” Creativity listened for the footsteps to retreat before turning back to the new kid. “So... we’re both Creativity? But how?”

The other shrugged. “I dunno! But I’m hungry, are we going to eat?” 

Even though he was still confused, Creativity couldn’t help but agree. They could figure this out after breakfast. 

~~~

“Morality! Morality! Look, I have a new friend!”

Creativity called out as he entered the kitchen, his twin close behind him. Morality didn’t turn around from the stove where he was making breakfast.

“Oh really? That’s good!”

“We’re hungry! What’s for breakfast?”

“Pancakes!”

“With Mickey Mouse ears?”

“Of course!”

“Yay!” Creativity cheered, turning to look at his twin. He stopped when he saw his eyes narrowed, staring at the back of Morality’s head. “Uh, are you ok?”

“I’m fine, Creativity, why don’t you go sit down?” Morality answered, making a shooing motion.

“I wasn’t talking to you, Morality! I was talking to him!”

Morality laughed. “Oh, right, your new friend! What’s their name, Creativity?”

“Uh… Creativity.”

The moral side paused, laughing awkwardly. “That’s a bit confusing, don’t you think? You’re Creativity, there can’t be two of you.”

“Well… there are.” The darker twin said, hands on his hips. Grabbing the plate of hot pancakes, Morality turned around to gently persuade Creativity to maybe pick another name for his new friend. Instead, he froze. There were… two… Creativities…

His hands shook, and his grip faltered. The plate of pancakes plunged to the ground, shattering into pieces with a deafening clatter.

“Five second rule!” The gray one cheered, diving to grab the hot cakes. The one in white stood stock still, meeting Morality’s eyes with a shrug.

Morality couldn’t think of anything appropriate to say in the situation, so instead he reached out to the kid in gray and attempted to take the pancakes from him. “Don’t eat from the floor, there’s broken pieces!”

The kid dodged out of his reach, sticking his tongue out and wrinkling his nose. He shoved a full pancake into his mouth, unbothered by the pieces of ceramic stuck to it or the steam still rising from them.

“They’re mine!” He exclaimed through the mouthful. Morality took a step back, looking between the twins in surprise and fear as the one in white reached for a pancake from his brother’s arms, and promptly got his hand slapped away.

“Logic!!!” All Morality could do was call for backup. Thankfully, a voice answered him as he heard two pairs of footsteps come into the kitchen.

“Yes, Morality? I heard something break, is everything alright?” Logic asked. Passion peeked around him and he gasped. He dashed past Logic and ran up to the twins, eyes twinkling. 

“Creativity! There’s two of you?! Since when?!”

The white clad one spun to face his friend. “Since last night! I fell asleep at my desk and when I woke up, he was lying on the floor!” He pointed to his twin, who nodded, mouth still stuffed. Passion smiled widely, clapping. 

“That’s so cool!”

“Creativity, are you saying you went back to your desk even after I told you it was bedtime?” Logic walked up, eyebrows raised. The white Creativity laughed nervously, but before Logic could scold him, he was yanked away.

“Logic, what do we do?!” Morality hissed, keeping his voice low as the other three sides went back to their own discussion. Logic looked at him through the corner of his eye, thinking. 

“We haven’t had a new side join us in a while... not since Passion arrived a few years ago. I guess we’ll have to make a new room.”

“But he’s not a new side! He said he’s Creativity! There’s two of them now!”

“That’s... not possible. We’re all different, there cannot be more than one of each of us.”

Morality shrugged helplessly. “Well... there are!”

Logic sighed, easing his arm out of Morality’s vicelike grip. “There’s nothing we can do right now. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. For all we know, this is a prank Creativity is trying to pull on us. There’s no reason to worry. Even if there are two Creativities now, why does it matter? It’s unlikely they’ll cause more trouble than before.”

The two looked over and realized that the twins and Passion weren’t standing there anymore. Then they heard a loud crash from somewhere in the mindscape, and the start of an argument. Logic pinched the bridge of his nose.

“You were saying?”

~~~

_That was when we split... when we became brothers, rather than one single person. We never really knew why it happened, but then again, we were just kids. What else could we do but accept it?_

_We got along in those days. Even though we were split, we were still joined at the hip. I think we gave Morality and Logic a headache._

~~~

“We need names.”

Creativity looked at his gray-clad twin, tilting his head up from where he was drawing on the floor to the bed where the other Creativity was lying upside down watching.

“What do you mean? We already have a name, it’s Creativity.”

The one lying on the bed huffed. “But we can’t _both_ be Creativity! It’s so confusing!”

“Well, that’s what we are! We can’t call ourselves Logic or Morality, that’s not what we’re for!”

“But what if we had other names besides Creativity? That way they can tell us apart!”

The Creativity on the floor stopped, his pencil hovering over the paper. “We can… do that?”

“Why not? Who’s gonna stop us?”

“I guess so… did you have an idea?”

The darker of the two grinned and grabbed the book he’d been reading earlier and held it up for his twin.

“Did you steal that from Logic?”

“That’s not important. Look.” He flipped through the pages, opening it up to a pencil illustration of a wolf and two young children next to her. He held it out to his twin, who rolled his eyes.

“It’s upside down.”

“You’re so picky!” The gray twin groaned, rolling over on the bed so both he and the book were right side up. “There, happy?”

“Why are you showing me this?”

“It’s the story of how Rome was made. There were these two brothers, Romulus and Remus, and they were raised by a wolf, and then they went on to create the huge Roman Empire!”

The lighter one seemed unconvinced. “Ok, but what does that have to do with us?”

“Isn’t it obvious, dummy? We’re going to create things that are just as great as they did, don’t we deserve to have cool names like them?”

“I get to be Romulus!” 

“Wha-hey, no fair, why do you get to pick first?”

Creativity sat up, crossing his legs and puffing his chest out. “Because I’m older and that means I get to pick first!”

“We’re the same age! Ugh, fine, Remus is the name I wanted anyways! Romulus sounds like a grandpa!”

The white-clad twin pouted. “No it doesn’t!”

“Yeah, it does!”

“Well, then, I’m not gonna use it!”

“But we have to match! We’re Creativity, we both need to have names that fit!”

“Fine! Then I’ll change it to sound cooler! How about... Roman?” 

The gray Creativity - Remus - nodded. “Ok! Let’s go tell the others!” He rolled off the bed and grinned. “Race you!”

The white Creativity - Roman - jumped to his feet and chased his brother out the door. 

~~~

“I win!” Remus cheered, throwing his hands up in celebration as Roman groaned. 

“No fair, you pushed me against the wall!”

“You tried to trip me!” Came the reply. 

Logic closed the book he was reading and looked up from the couch at the two of them. “What’s going on? Why were you running?”

Roman stepped forward, putting an arm in front of his brother and not so subtly shoving him to the side. 

“Morality! Logic! Passion! Gather round, we have something to tell you!” Roman said in the proudest voice he could. Passion glanced at him from where he was seated on the ground in front of the TV, and Morality peeked his head out from the kitchen. 

“What is it kiddo?”

Roman opened his mouth to announce the news, but Remus beat him to it. 

“We have names now!”

Logic raised an eyebrow. “Of course you do, you’re Creativity. That’s not new information to us.”

Roman shook his head. “No, he means we have different names now! My name is Roman, and this is Remus!” He gestured to his brother, then took a wide bow. He heard Logic mumble something about a missing book under his breath. 

“Does that mean you’re not Creativity anymore?!” Passion asked worriedly, leaning forward with his hand over his heart. 

“No, we are! But it’s too confusing if we’re both named Creativity! We never know which one of us you’re talking to! So we picked new names, names that we can use besides Creativity, so there’s no more confusion!”

Morality stepped into the common room, eyes full of confusion and concern. “But... you two are Creativity. You can’t just change that because you want to.”

“Why not?” Remus challenged, puffing his chest out and putting his hands on his hips. Morality looked down at him, chewing his lip. 

“Well, because... because we’re just sides of Thomas. If we have names, it’s like we’re saying we’re our own people, and we’re not.”

“But Thomas doesn’t need to know! He can just know us as Creativity! The names are just for us to use!” Roman said, slightly worried that Morality wouldn’t let this go. 

From the couch, Logic cleared his throat. “Morality, it’s alright. I think it’s a good idea.”

“Wh-what?”

“They’re correct in that it’s been confusing to refer to both of them as Creativity. If they want to give themselves names to differentiate from each other, then I don’t see why we should say no.”

Remus grinned cheekily. “Good! Cause we were gonna do it whether you liked it or not!”

Morality scowled, but Passion stood and raced over to the twins, grabbing their hands and squeezing them tightly. “I want to have a name too! Can I have one? Please? I promise I’ll pick a good one!”

“Hey now, I don’t know about that--” Morality started.

“Yes!” Roman cheered. “We should all have names!”

“No!” Morality said sternly. The trio looked at him, Passion pouting. 

“Why not?”

“Those two are only allowed names because there’s two of them, and they’re both Creativity. Is there another Passion I should know about?”

“Well... no, but... it would be fun to have a different name...” Passion mumbled, eyes staring at the floor. Morality smiled softly, ruffling the younger’s hair. 

“Maybe, but we were just talking about clearing up confusion. Wouldn’t it be more confusing if we now knew you by two different names? How would we know what to call you each time?”

Passion huffed. “I guess...”

The twins shared a glance. Well, they had their names! As long as they got to keep them, that’s what they cared about. Roman took Passion’s hand.

“C’mon Passion, let’s go to the Imagination and play!”

Passion brightened immediately, nodding. “Ok!”

Logic watched as the three took off for the doorway to the Imagination, and Morality collapsed onto the couch with a sharp exhale. 

“Those three sure are a handful, aren’t they?” Morality smiled. Logic opened his book again, picking up where he left off.

“Would it have been so bad to let Passion pick a human name for himself?” He asked after a moment. 

“We can’t just let them do whatever they want, Logic. There needs to be some line.”

“A harmless name that would function as no more than a nickname seems like a strange place to draw that line, Morality.” Logic stated, turning the page. 

“W-Well, that’s where it is. Creativity is just confused right now. He’ll figure it out eventually and then we’ll go back to how we were. Everything will turn out right in the end.”

Logic lifted his head, staring over at Morality cautiously. “I know you’ve had a hard time accepting it, but Creativity is no longer one person, Morality. For whatever unknown reason, he was split into two distinct sides, and we should be treating them as such.”

“But I still don’t understand why?! If they’re both Creativity, why did they split in the first place?” Morality twisted his hair between his fingers, clearly stressed about the question. Logic sighed.

“I don’t know yet. But regardless of the reason, they are separate people now. Crea-- Roman and Remus deserve to be treated the same as when they were a single Creativity.” Logic corrected himself, staring at Morality and leaving no room for debate. 

The moral side pursed his lips, but before he could think of another way to explain his point to Logic, the scent of burning sugar wafted to him and he jumped to his feet. 

“The cookies!”

~~~

_I’d forgotten... the names, they were his idea. I wonder if that was why Patton was so against them at the beginning._

_He’d never liked me, not since the day I showed up. I didn’t care - as long as I had my brother, that was all I needed._

~~~

“Hyah!” 

Remus called out a battle cry as he swung his playsword at his brother, who blocked it. Roman pushed him away, swinging back with a cry of his own.

The twins raced down the hallway, swatting at each other and laughing. They were covered in scratches and bruises, with a particularly dark one on the side of Roman’s jaw and a long one developing on Remus’s lower back, but it didn’t deter them from their game. 

“You shall perish, you dastardly villain!” Roman recited, holding his sword up in triumph. Remus laughed, dodging a strike.

“You’ve gotta catch me first, slowpoke!” Remus taunted, sticking his tongue out. Roman ran forward, clashing against his brother and throwing them both to the floor. Remus puffed out a breath as he landed, grappling against Roman to shove him to the side. 

The younger ended up on top of his brother, his knee shoved into the other’s rib cage and his arms pinning Roman’s to the ground. Roman coughed, trying to kick his way out of the hold.

“I’ve got you!” Remus crooned. 

“What’s going on here?” 

The twins looked up at the voice, with Roman having to tilt his head backwards to see Morality staring down at them, eyebrows furrowed. 

“We’re playing!”

“You’re covered in bruises! Remus, get off of him!” Morality scolded, pulling Remus off by his shoulder. The gray clad Creativity fell hard on his butt and whined, but Morality’s attention was focused on Roman. He helped the side sit up and gently prodded at the bruise on his cheek. 

“What did you-- I mean, what have you two been doing?” Morality caught himself, directing his glare at Remus. The side crumpled slightly under his gaze, though his eyes burned with resentment.

“Please don’t be mad, we were just messing around!” Roman tried to explain. Morality sighed, gently looking over Roman one more time. 

“I don’t like you two fighting like that, you could get seriously hurt. Why don’t you two play a game that doesn’t involve hitting each other? Logic has some board games in his room.” He suggested. 

Remus wrinkled his nose, crossing his legs and pulling his ankles towards him. “But that’s so boring! You never let us do anything fun!”

Morality recoiled slightly, recovering with a forced smile. “But it’s not fun to hurt each other, right? Why don’t you play something else?”

“But I’m a prince, Morality! I need to be able to defeat evil and protect my kingdom!” Roman argued, waving his play sword around for emphasis. Morality raised an eyebrow. 

“A... prince?” He asked, confused. Roman nodded emphatically, jumping to his feet and pointing his wooden sword at his brother with his chest puffed out. 

“That’s right! I’m Prince Roman, heir to the kingdom, and I will protect you and everyone else from... uh... from...”

“From the bad guys!” Remus offered, standing up and grabbing his own sword. Morality chuckled.

“What bad guys? We don’t have any of those, we’re all family here!”

Remus tilted his head. “What about the sides that sneak around here at night?” 

Morality stiffened, laughing nervously. “What are you talking about, Remus? There’s nobody around here at night. Your imagination is just playing tricks on you.”

The younger twin narrowed his eyes, staring at Morality. “Yes there are. I’ve seen them. They live down the hallway, past our rooms. They stole my peanut butter.”

Morality stood, shaking his head firmly. “It was a dream, Remus. There’s nothing down that way but empty space. You shouldn’t go there.”

“If there’s nothing there, why can’t we explore there?” Remus challenged, hands on his hips. He had a triumphant, cocky grin on his face. Morality cleared his throat, standing straight. He was several inches taller than the twins, not to mention a few years older. He didn’t like that Remus was getting so mouthy. 

“Because I said so!” Morality said, parroting the words Thomas himself heard so many times from his guardians. Remus and Roman pouted, and his face softened. “Because if you go too far, I can’t find you as easily and call you for dinner. Now, why don’t you two go play together in the Imagination? Maybe you can come up with a new game, one that doesn’t involve hurting each other?”

The twins shared a look. “Ok, Morality, we’ll try. C’mon Remus, we can go make a castle! We can play rescue!”

“I’m not gonna be the princess again! You can get Passion to do that!”

The twins bickered as they ran off towards the door to the Imagination, which was thankfully far away from the dark hallway where the other sides resided. Morality took in a slow breath, pushing his glasses up and rubbing at his eyes.

Being one of the first sides to exist, Morality felt obligated to look after his fellow sides. Alongside Logic, who’d appeared shortly after he did, he made sure Creativity and Passion were safe and happy. He had to protect them. But ever since _the split_ , he was finding it harder and harder to keep his temper in check.

He wanted to separate them, keep them in soft rooms and stop them from hurting each other. Morality didn’t – couldn’t – understand why they found it necessarily to fight like that. Well, they called it playing, but Morality knew better than them. One of these days, it would go too far, and one of them would get hurt. Remus would swing just a little too hard and Roman would be gone. If that happened, Thomas would never be the same… 

Morality shook his head harshly, casting a scared glance towards the dark hallway, where he could feel a cool breeze chilling his spine. He couldn’t think like that, it would bring _him_.

Right. To keep him at bay, he just had to keep everyone happy. He’d been doing pretty well, but he knew he could do better. Passion was still begging him to let everyone pick a human name for themselves… maybe he could reconsider his position. If it would make him happy.

If he was honest, the idea was starting to grow on him. Perhaps Roman was onto something after all. 

~~~

The twins heard Passion before they saw him. Logic’s door was sitting open and they could hear his excited voice from inside.

Roman peeked his head around the doorframe. Logic was sitting at his desk, pencil in his one hand and the other twisted in his hair. Passion sat behind him on the bed, chatting away about the TV documentary Thomas had watched earlier. The room looked as organized as ever, though there was a chess board sitting on one of the tables, clearly in the middle of a game.

Logic heard footsteps and turned to them, seeming to sigh in relief. “Oh, it’s you two.”

“Sorry, we just came to see if Passion wanted to play in the Imagination with us.” Remus explained, poking his head in as well.

Passion lit up. “Yes! I’m coming!” He chirped, scrambling off of Logic’s tall bed and running over to Remus. “What are we gonna play?”

“We’re gonna make a new game! Do you wanna help?”

Passion nodded. “Of course! Let’s go!”

Logic nodded. “Be careful you two, I see that bruise on Roman’s cheek.” The twins nodded, and Passion all but pulled Remus towards the door to the Imagination. Roman started to follow. “Roman, hold on just a moment.”

He paused, looking back into the room. “Yes, Logic?” He asked, wary of another lecture. Logic sighed, tapping on the open book in front of him.

“Please try to keep Passion distracted for a while. At least until dinner time, if you can. Thomas has a test tomorrow and he needs to focus on studying. He can’t do that when Passion is distracting him with needless facts about space or whatever it was he was rambling about.”

Roman flinched back, slightly hurt by that. Passion was his best friend, after his brother. He adored the things they made, and always had the energy to talk about the things he loved. He was what spurred Roman on, more often than not.

“But he makes Thomas happy when he talks about those things.”

Logic sighed, pushing up his glasses. “Yes, but right now it’s more important to focus on school than cartoons. Once Thomas is done with his test, then he can resume whatever it was he was so invested in today.”

There was a hint of scorn in Logic’s voice. Roman nodded slowly. “Ok Logic, we’ll stay with him.”

“Thank you. That’s all I needed Roman, you can go play now.”

It was probably supposed to be an excuse to leave, but Roman couldn’t shake the feeling of being dismissed.

“Right... ah, work hard, Logic!” He cheered, closing the door quietly.

Roman took a moment to collect himself. It hurt him to think that Logic didn’t like Passion. He shook his head. No, that wasn’t it. Thomas was just stressed about his test tomorrow, so Logic just wanted to help! 

Even still, he decided to keep his mouth shut about it. It made him feel icky, but it would be for the best.

~~~ 

When Roman found his brother and friend in the Imagination, they were already deep in very serious discussion.

“I'm not playing Princess and the Frog! I don’t care if it’s fake, I’m not kissing a frog!” Passion stomped his foot, and Remus pouted.

“Aww, c’mon Passion, even if it turned into a beautiful prince?” Remus teased, wiggling his eyebrows and puckering his lips. Passion shoved him back.

“No way! Roman, tell him I don’t want to be a princess today!”

Roman grinned widely, stepping in between his brother and best friend. “We’re going to invent a new game, something that doesn’t involve kissing of any kind! I got an idea when I saw the chess set in Logic’s room!”

Passion leaned in, excited about any idea that didn’t involve him kissing a slimy frog. Remus didn’t look as impressed.

“How are you planning on making _chess_ interesting?” He asked, unconvinced. 

“You have little faith! Just listen to me. Each of us will be on our own team. We’ll mark out a part of the Imagination as our play field. We start a timer, and within the time we have, we get to make whatever we want! It can be a building, or a maze, or a giant dragon! After the time is up, we stop creating and we use our creations to fight each other!”

Remus crossed his arms. “But how do you win?”

Roman paused, thinking. “Ummm... how about this! We hide something within our area that the other people need to find. Like a flag or something. The goal is to get everyone’s flag back to your base!”

Passion chewed his lip. “But I’m not as good at making things as you are... could I be on a team with one of you instead?”

“You can be with me, Passion—“ Remus offered, but Roman shook his head.

“No, it’s not fair if it’s two against one!”

“But it’s not fair to Passion is he has to play against us!” Remus argued back. 

“That’s true... oh! What if Passion was the ref? That way he’s not on a team but he still gets to play!”

Passion beamed. “That sounds perfect!”

The trio immediately started discussing the exact rules. Roman laid out lines through the field to divide it up into two even areas, and Remus created trees and bushes to make it easier to hide. Once everything was decided, the twins went to their respective sides of the field and Passion started their timer. 

They played their game for hours, round after round and victory bouncing between the two as they tweaked the rules. Somewhere along the line the goal of the game went from getting a flag to tagging the other, at Roman’s suggestion. The game wasn’t nearly as fun if he couldn’t get involved in the battle himself!

Thankfully, though the twins liked to play rough with each other, the new bruises they both received were easily hidden by their outfits. Passion was worried about them both, having witnessed the blows in person, but the twins reassured him they were fine. When Morality called for them for dinner, they made Passion promise he wouldn’t tell Morality exactly what they’d been doing, because he might make them stop. 

Passion agreed - this had been the most fun game the twins had come up with, but Morality probably wouldn’t approve. With their little secret in place, the trio scampered out of the Imagination and into the kitchen, the scent of garlic bread making their stomachs growl. 

The sides didn’t need to eat of course, but when Thomas was having dinner with his family, his sides liked to gather around the table as well. Morality turned as he heard the trio come into the kitchen, setting down the bowl of spaghetti noodles on the table. 

“You three have been gone a long time! What were you doing?”

“Playing in the Imagination, like you told us to!” Remus told him, a hint of sass in his voice. Morality opened his mouth to scold him, then thought again and closed it, offering a tight-lipped smile instead. 

“Well I’m glad you two were able to find a less destructive way to play together. I know you have fun, but it’s dangerous for Thomas if one of you gets hurt. Now, go wash your hands and we can eat!” 

Logic arrived in the time it took for the three of them to wash and dry their hands, and the five of them dug in eagerly to the meal. 

As they were all finishing, Morality cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. 

“So I’ve been thinking recently... And I was wondering. Passion, do you still... want to have a human name?”

Passion curled in on himself slightly, hesitantly nodding as if afraid he would get in trouble for admitting it. Instead, Morality smiled softly at him and nodded. 

“Alright then.”

The twins looked back and forth between Morality and Passion, confused. “Wait...” Roman said slowly, “I thought you said we were the only ones who got to have names?”

“I did, yes. Originally I thought that it would only confuse things if we had more than one name. Or that somehow, we may lose our purposes if we didn’t use our titles. But clearly I was wrong. So, if you still want to choose one, Passion, you can.”

Passion’s eyes lit up and he clapped his hands in front of his chest eagerly. “Yay! Thank you Morality!”

“Does that mean you two are gonna pick names too?” Remus asked, using his fork to point at Logic and Morality. The older sides glanced at each other. 

“I guess we could!” Morality said. He wouldn’t deny he’d been considering the possibility for a while. He even had a few names he liked lined up. 

Logic shrugged. “I suppose I can join in, though I don’t see much point in it.”

“I’ve got one!” Passion exclaimed, pounding his hands on the table and half-standing in his chair. Morality leaned over on instinct to catch him if he lost his balance. Passion lifted his chin, grinning brightly at the rest of them. 

“Hello everyone, I’m Valentine Sanders! Nice to meet you!” 

The twins looked at each other and grinned, clapping as their friend took an exaggerated bow. Morality smiled as well, helping Passion - Valentine - back into his seat. 

As the discussion turned to possible names for Morality and Logic, two figures sat quietly on the stairs, listening in on the lively conversation. The older one was hunched over, arms wrapped around himself tightly, trying to soak in as much warmth from this side of the mindscape before they needed to go back. The smaller of the two poked his head through the banister, trying to get as close to the noise as possible, drinking it in. The scales on the side of his face glinted in the dim light that hit them, his scar bright red and angry. 

“Names, huh?” The older said, tugging on the back of the younger’s shirt weakly to keep him from being seen. 

“I want one too...” The younger told his friend softly, moving away from the banister and curling up against him. He instinctively put an arm around the smaller side, offering the little warmth he was managing to get. 

“Then let’s pick one. For ourselves.” 

The younger smiled up at him, canine teeth sharp. “It’ll be our secret.” He agreed. 

The sides at the dinner table stood up to clear their plates, and the elder side on the stairs stood as well, grabbing the other’s hand. The younger one whined.

“Do we have to go back, Fear? It’s so cold in my room!” 

Fear sighed, pulling him along towards the dark hallway where their rooms resided. 

“We don’t belong here, Deceit. Come on, you can stay with me tonight. I’ll keep you warm.”

With that promise Deceit followed Fear down the hallway, letting the cold shadows swallow them as they left the warm, welcoming scene behind them, unnoticed. 

Almost.

~~~

_Back then, we thought Patton was afraid of the dark. Or maybe the spiders that were down the hall. He never did like spiders much._

_What we didn’t realize is that nobody’s really afraid of the dark. No, they’re afraid of what might be hiding in that darkness. Watching. Waiting. Isn’t it fitting that he hid those he was afraid of in that darkness, and refuse to let anyone see what he hid?_

~~~

As Thomas grew up, he started calling on his Creativity more. Roman accepted the task of helping their host, offering his input on school projects and personal ideas. 

Remus said he didn’t mind. While his brother took the reins and worked hard to brainstorm, Remus could wander the mindscape, offering up ideas as they came to him without any restrictions. 

“Remus, please stop pacing, I can’t think!” Roman groaned, heel of his hand pressed against his cheek as he stared at his notebook, the page covered in disjointed notes and ideas. Remus stopped moving, pouting. 

“I’m trying to help! I can’t think if I don’t move around!” He shot back, to which Roman sighed. The white clad side of Creativity turned in his chair and gave his darker clothed brother a tired smile.

“I know you are,” he said softly, “but it’s making it hard for me to think. Why don’t you take a walk and see if anything comes to you? Here.” Roman offered a small notepad and pencil to Remus, which he took quickly. Roman smiled, making sure Remus knew he wasn’t mad. “Once you come back, we can compare notes and help Thomas together, ok?”

Remus deflated a little, feeling as if he was being sent away like a child. Regardless, he wasn’t getting anything by pacing here anyways. He stuck the notepad and pencil in his pocket, shrugging nonchalantly and flashing Roman a bright smile. 

“I’ll be back! Don’t finish the project before I get back!” 

Roman chuckled and waved to him as he left the room, turning back to the desk and stretching before going back to his notebook. 

Remus let the door close behind him, leaning against it for a moment. He didn’t really want to take a walk down to the common room where Morality was likely to be. Ever since that night where they had chosen names for themselves, Morality - no, Patton - had started to treat him different. It was like he had forgotten that he was Thomas’s Creativity too. 

He turned his head the other way, towards the darkened hallway where they were forbidden to go. There was cold oozing from the shadows, and it sent a chill down Remus’ spine. 

Patton would be furious if he went down there. 

Remus grinned wickedly. Good. 

With head high and shoulders back, the darker Creativity started down the hallway, feeling the shadows curl around him and swallow the light behind him until he was surrounded by cold, pure blackness. 

~~~

Remus blinked, trying to let his eyes adjust to the shift to complete darkness. He looked over his shoulder to try and catch the light from where he entered, but there was nothing but a faint pinprick of light in the distance. For a moment, he pondered whether he should go back. Already he could feel the warmth being leached from his body. 

Then he shook his head, turning forward and marching on. He kept one hand on the wall, figuring that if he didn’t find anything, he could just turn around and follow it back out. 

His footsteps were muffled, as if the darkness itself was swallowing the noise. It unsettled him, so used to the Imagination where everything was always so bright and stimulating. Strangely enough though, there was something comforting about the darkness. It was cold, but welcoming. 

As he kept walking, Remus started to believe Patton was right about this place. There was nothing here, at least nothing that was interesting. The only thing that kept him going was the two shadowy sides he’d caught glimpses of over the years. 

He’d only ever caught one good look of them. One night, after everyone else had gone to sleep and Remus was drifting off, he’d heard footsteps and soft whispers passing by their door. Curiosity had driven his exhaustion away in an instant, and he quietly climbed down the bunk bed ladder and snuck out of the room without waking Roman. 

Quiet voices and the sound of shuffling feet came from the kitchen. Remus had snuck closer and crouched low on the stairs, looking through the banister at the intruders. 

One wore a thick hoodie, zipped tightly up to his throat and hood thrown over his head. He was tall, at least as tall as Morality or Logic was. It wasn’t easy to recognize that though, as he kept his shoulders hunched, like he wanted to be smaller. He was grabbing things from the cupboard and shoving them in his pockets, as well as handing them to his partner.

The other was shorter and looked slightly younger, probably close to him and his brother or Passion. He wore a long cape that fell at his wrists, made of some thick fabric. At the time, Remus had wondered how they weren’t melting, considering how warm it was in the mindscape. 

Now he was starting to understand. He rubbed at his bare arms, goosebumps crawling on his skin. Then something shifted, and he was jolted back into the present. Remus blinked, looking ahead where the faintest glow of light was emanating from the wall. Keeping his hand on the wall, Remus sped up to investigate. So, there was something here after all!

As he approached, he realized the light wasn’t coming from the wall, but rather seeping under the crack of a door. Remus tried to read the sign hanging on the door, but the light wasn’t bright enough. 

After a moment of hesitation, Remus knocked. Then he knocked again. “Hello? Anyone there?” 

There was no answer. Not even his own voice echoed back to him. 

Remus groped blindly for the doorknob, turning it and opening the door. He gasped at the sight that he was met with, squinting at the light that poured out.

It looked like a normal bedroom on the floor, but instead of a ceiling there were glowing balls of light floating lazily above him, casting golden light down onto the floor. They didn’t seem to emanate heat though, as the room was even colder than the hallway. Despite that, Remus felt drawn in, and he started to take a step forward into the room. He needed to see one of the spheres. Just one, that would be enough. 

“Stop!”

The voice startled Remus, and he jumped back, away from the doorway as he glanced around frantically to find the source of the voice. 

From the darkness down the hallway beyond the door, two glowing purple eyes shone brilliantly. Remus let out a breath - there were people here after all!

“Hi, I’m Remus! I’m half of Thomas’s creativity!--”

“You don’t belong here.”

Remus paused, blinking. “Huh?”

“You need to leave. **_Now!_** ”

The creative side took a step back. What just happened? Suddenly his heart was racing, and he felt an overwhelming urge to run away, back to the light and warmth of his room. Yet he was frozen, feet planted firmly as he shook. Whether it was from the cold or fright, he couldn’t tell. 

“What are you doing? Leave! You don’t belong here! You need to go!”

“Fear, what are you yelling about?” A new voice came from the darkness. The purple eyes turned away from him and it broke the spell holding Remus in place. He stumbled, taking a step back as a single golden eye appeared. The person it belonged to walked forward, and Remus realized with a start that he had snake scales crawling up from his collar, stopping right below the curve of his cheekbone.

“I’m sorry about that, Fear just wanted to make sure you didn’t step in my room. It’s not good for people who aren’t used to it.” The side explained, reaching forward and pulling the door closed. The hallway was plunged into darkness and the creative side blinked, reaching for the wall again.

Instead he felt a gloved hand grab his and start pulling him past the door, back the way he came.

“He is right though, you shouldn’t be here. It’s not good for one of you to be on our side of the mind. I’ll lead you back.”

“W-Wait, I’m not going back yet! I just got here, and I have so many questions for you two!”

“Well, we don’t want to answer them!” The purple-eyed one snapped, but the one who held Remus’s hand paused.

“What kind of questions?” 

“Well, like, who you are! Why do you stay here where it’s dark and cold when you could come out and stay with us? Why do you sneak into the kitchen and steal food at night? Why do your eyes glow? Why—“

“Enough!” The glowing purple disappeared as the side squeezed his eyes shut, hands clamped tightly over his ears. “Go away, now!”

“No!”

“ ** _Go home!_**!”

Again that gut wrenching fear shot through his bones and made Remus want to bolt, but the gloved hand held onto him and kept him grounded. 

“Fear, please, it’s alright. He’s not here to hurt us.”

“You’re wrong! I know Morality sent him here to spy on us! I told you he knew we took food!”

Remus’s eyes widened and he stomped his foot. “I’m not here for Patton! I would never do a favor for him! He’s a jerk!”

The golden eye turned to him, staring into his soul. “You don’t like him? But he’s the leader of Thomas’ sides, we have to respect him.” Remus laughed.

“Leader? He’s useless without Logan helping him out! And all he ever does is nag! I can never do anything right according to him. He would never let me come here, but he’s not the boss of me!”

“I see... why don’t you follow me, then? I think we have a lot to talk about.” Remus was pulled down the hall, away from the door with the starry sky and further into the darkness. His heart was racing, but this time it was from excitement rather than fear.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” The purple eyed one - Fear, Remus recalled - hissed through his teeth as they passed him, and his guide’s glowing eye tilted up to look at him.

“Go to your room, Fear. I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything.” Despite being shorter and seemingly younger than Fear, Deceit had a confidence to his voice that reminded Remus of Morality.

“No way am I leaving you alone with one of... _them_! I’m coming with!”

“Suit yourself!” He chirped, pulling Remus forward. “I’m Deceit. The scaredy cat following us is Fear.”

“Shut your little mouth.” Came the snarky reply. Deceit snickered.

“I’m Creativity! But you can call me Remus too.” He told them, trusting that Deceit wouldn’t lead him straight into a wall. “How can you see? It’s pitch black!”

“We’ve lived here a long time.” Deceit answered, turning a corner and tugging Remus along.

“But why? There’s plenty of room with us! We could make rooms for you two, no problem!” Remus boasted, puffing his chest out a bit. 

“We like it here. Watch your head.” The warning came just a moment too late as they walked through a low hanging doorway and Remus ran straight into the top of the doorframe. He sank into a crouch, holding his forehead and groaning.

“Ow ow ow…”

Deceit sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Sorry, forgot about that. Here, come sit on the couch. Fear, do we have any more ice?”

“Uh, I’m not sure…”

“Can you check?” Deceit asked, grabbing Remus’s elbow calmly to lead him to the couch, where he leaned back and kept rubbing at the aching area. Fear mumbled something and Remus heard footsteps shuffling away. “Sit right there.”

Then Deceit’s hand was gone, and suddenly a soft light bloomed in the corner of the room. Remus blinked, already used to having no light at all. A shadow passed in front of it as Deceit moved around, lighting candles until the entire room was dancing with flickering shadows.

“Woah…” Remus breathed, a smile growing on his face. “This is so cool…!”

Deceit turned back to him, shrugging. In the candlelight his scales glittered like gemstones, and Remus was entranced. As the side came over and sat down next to him, the creative side couldn’t help but stare.

“Does your head still hurt—”

“Can I touch your scales?”

Deceit blinked, flinching away. His gloved hand snuck up to his face, protecting himself. “W-why?”

Remus tilted his head. “Because they look cool? I wanna know what they feel like! Can I?”

“I, ah... I don’t see why not...” Deceit slowly let his hand fall into his lap.

Remus needed no further invitation as he shifted himself on the couch to be within reach. He eagerly held his hand out, running a finger along the curve of Deceit’s cheekbone where they stopped. The transition between skin and scales fascinated him, and he leaned in to try and see them better in the dim light.

“You... aren’t scared of me.” Deceit noted, sounding confused. Remus glanced over to meet his eyes. 

“No? Why would I be?” 

“Because... everyone else is?” Deceit sounded incredulous. Remus shrugged.

“Well, I’m not like everyone else then.” Remus’s fingers trailed lower and traced over the scar cutting from the corner of Deceit’s mouth up to his ear. Deceit winced. “What happened?” Remus breathed.

Deceit was intentionally avoiding looking at Remus. “Even we run into things sometimes.”

Remus paused, then tilted his head so he was in Deceit’s line of sight. “You don’t need to lie to me! I promise I won’t judge you, I’ve got a bunch of embarrassing scars too!”

“That’s his thing.” Fear stepped into the room, hands shoved deep into his hoodie pockets. He fell back into an armchair, sitting across it and hooking his legs over the armrest. He trained his eyes on Remus, crossing his arms and scowling. “Lying, I mean. That’s what he does.”

Deceit cleared his throat. “It’s not important anyways, it’s healed up and not a big deal. I’m more curious about you. What made you want to come into this place?”

Remus pouted. “Hey, no fair, I’ve got questions too!”

“Then you can ask one after you answer mine. We’ll go back and forth. Deal?”

The creative side thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Alright, sure! I came down here cause my brother kicked me out of our room cause I was distracting him, and I didn’t want to go downstairs cause Morality was down there and he annoys me, so I decided to come here because he told me not to and that just made me curious!” Remus spouted all in one breath. “My turn! Why do you two live here, instead of with the rest of us? There’s plenty of room!”

Deceit’s eyes flickered over at Fear for a moment before fixing back on Remus with a small – fake – smile. “This is where we belong. We wouldn’t fit in with the rest of you, so we stay here.”

Remus licked his lips. He didn’t like that answer for some reason. “But... we’re all Thomas’s sides, aren’t we?”

“Unlike you, we’re not good for Thomas. He doesn’t like us. It’s better if we work from the shadows.” Fear spoke from the corner. Deceit sighed quietly. 

“You have your world, and we have ours. They don’t need to overlap.”

Remus shook his head. “That’s not true. Because I’ve seen you guys on our side a bunch of times. You sit on the staircase and watch us during dinner, and you sneak into the kitchen at night and take food. I’m not mad! But... don’t you have food here? And if you really don’t think we should overlap, then why do you come and watch us eat?”

“I told you they knew.” Fear shot at Deceit. 

“ _I_ know. And I think Morality might know about the food thing. But the others don’t. Or at least they’ve never said anything. So why don’t you have food?”

“This side of the mind is unpredictable. It doesn’t make sense like... like your side. It doesn’t always provide things that are... edible.” Deceit said slowly, picking his words carefully. “As for... the dinner thing, well... it gets cold here.”

“So you come over so you can warm up? Why don’t you come downstairs and introduce yourselves, then?”

“What about ‘we don’t belong there’ do you not understand?” Fear snapped, swinging his legs over and sitting up straight. “We aren’t like you! Thomas doesn’t like us or what we do! This is the place for sides like us!” 

Deceit flinched as Fear shouted, bringing a hand up to scratch at his scar. 

Remus narrowed his eyes. “Thomas doesn’t always like us either. Doesn’t that mean we all belong over here then?”

Fear growled, fists clenched. Deceit, realizing Fear was at his limit, stood up and took Remus’s hand to pull him to his feet. 

“I think it’s time for you to go back. You wouldn’t want someone to come looking for you and get lost here.” 

Remus puffed his cheeks out but stood up, realizing with a start that he had been meant to be thinking of ideas to help Roman, but he’d gotten completely distracted. He let Deceit lead him back into the dark hallway, but found himself surprised to find that he could actually see. It wasn’t very bright, nothing more than a dim glow, but it was enough to see the width of the hallway and the turns they were taking before they hit them. 

Deceit was silently watching him as they walked back to the doorway between the sides of the mind. He noticed that Remus’s eyes were following the line of the hallway, rather than darting around blindly. He pursed his lips, curious. 

“Here’s where I’ll leave you. Keep walking forward and you’ll be back on your side of the mind,” Deceit stopped, letting go of Remus’s hand. The creative side turned and smiled at Deceit.

“You know, I could leave some food for you guys sometimes, right here. Or you could come to dinner, Morality’s a pain but he does make some good food!”

Deceit chuckled lightly. “That’s... kind of you, but we can take care of ourselves.”

“If you say so. I’ll do it anyways. You like peanut butter, right?” 

Remus didn’t wait for a response, winking and leaving the hallway, practically melting at the sudden blast of warmth. 

Deceit stood there for a long time after Remus left. There was no way... he must have been imagining things. Remus was part of the others, the ones of the light. They didn’t belong on this side, they didn’t adjust to the darkness. 

So why, then, had there been a green glint in Remus’s eye?

~~~

Remus eased open his bedroom door slowly, wincing as it creaked. He peeked his head in and saw Roman bent over the desk, hand moving furiously as he wrote in his notebook. He didn’t look up as Remus flopped onto the lower bunk, propping his feet up and closing his eyes. 

“You were gone a while. I practically finished this project while you were off doing whatever you were doing!” Roman reached his arms into the air and stretched, groaning as his muscles popped. He twisted in his chair, throwing an arm over the backrest and looking back at his brother. “So, where did you... go...? Remus, what happened to your clothes?!”

Remus opened his eyes and lifted his head to glance curiously at his brother, but his gaze was drawn down to his chest and he sucked in a breath. 

His normally light gray outfit was stained black, like someone had thrown a bucket of ink over him. He scrambled off the bed and checked the covers, but it hadn’t leaked onto them. When he scrubbed it with his palms, a thin, almost oily coating came off onto his fingers. 

Roman stood up so fast his chair fell on its back, striding over to Remus and grabbing his arm, trying to brush the oily dust away but only managing to smudge it more. Roman’s hand tightened around his brother’s bicep, eyes staring down but not seeing anything.

“Where did you go?” He growled low. Remus tried to grin, but it became a wince.

“I got curious! You didn’t want me around and Patton was downstairs, so I just went exploring!”

Roman narrowed his eyes. “You went into the hallway. We aren’t supposed to go there, Remus.”

“But there’s nothing bad there! I met the sides who live over there, and they’re really nice! Well, Fear is kinda rude, but Deceit is really nice! I promised them I’d bring them some food!” Remus found himself telling his brother everything. He didn’t notice how Roman’s grip was tightening painfully on his arm until his fingers started tingling. “Uh, Ro? Let go, that hurts!”

“You weren’t supposed to go over there, Remus! Patton told us we weren’t allowed to because it’s dangerous! Now look what happened!”

“But Patton’s wrong! There’s nothing scary over there!” Remus raised his voice, pushing Roman away as the grip around his arm became painful. “We don’t always have to listen to Patton, you know! He’s not our dad, we’re all parts of Thomas!”

Roman gaped at him, he couldn’t believe his ears. He took a breath to say something, probably to scold him again, when there was a knock at the door and he jumped.

“Are you alright, Roman? I heard you shouting.” Patton asked through the door, worried.

“I’m alright! We were just excited about the idea we had for Thomas’s project! Right, Remus?!” Roman said shrilly. Remus stared at his brother – now he was the one who couldn’t believe his ears. Was he… lying? To _Patton_?!

He tried to open his mouth to tell Patton the truth, but suddenly a hand shot up and slapped over his mouth, muffling his words.

“Well, alright, if you’re sure you’re ok. Don’t overwork yourself! I’m going to get dinner started.”

“Ok!” Roman held his breath until he heard Patton walk away and back down the stairs. He glanced back at Remus, raising an eyebrow as he saw his brother fighting to pull his own hand off his mouth. “What… are you doing?”

As if released from some spell, Remus was finally able to tug his hand off his mouth, huffing in annoyance. “I wasn’t doing anything! My hand wouldn’t move!”

Roman rolled his eyes. “Sure.” Then he sighed, moving to fall back dramatically onto his bed. He tilted his head to the side, watching Remus as he went back to trying to brush off the black substance stuck to his clothes. “Why did you really go over there, Remus? You can tell me.”

“But I did tell you. I’ve been curious about that hallway for years, and I didn’t want to go downstairs and deal with Morality. So I went exploring.”

“Why didn’t you want to talk to Patton?” Roman sounded genuinely confused, and Remus grimaced at him.

“You’re kidding, right? He hates me, why would I want to go talk to someone who hates me?”

“He doesn’t hate you! Patton doesn’t hate anyone! He just… thinks some of your ideas are a bit… extreme, that’s all.”

Remus rolled his eyes, deciding that these stains weren’t coming out and he just needed to change. He tugged his shirt off, going over to their closet and searching for something else. He found an older costume of his hanging in the back. It was slightly too small, but it would work.

“Same thing. He doesn’t like it when I help you, even though I’m Creativity too. It’s like he forgot that we used to be the same person!” Remus growled, a sudden rush of anger coursing through him. He clenched his teeth, hands balling into fists.

“Remus, come on, we both know that isn’t—”

The younger twin whirled around, glaring daggers at his brother. “And you’re not much better! You barely let me help Thomas at all anymore! I have ideas too, you know! I want to help him achieve his dreams too! But you just shove me out of the room and tell me I can leave everything to you. What if I want to help, huh?!”

Roman sat up, hands covering his mouth as he watched Remus duck his head, squeezing his eyes shut and taking heavy breaths. “Remus…”

“Maybe I do belong with them after all…”

The elder twin stood up, moving to Remus and wrapping him in a hug. “I’m so sorry, Remus. I didn’t realize… but I’m going to stop. We’re going to work together from now on. You belong here, with us. With me. You’re my other half, after all.”

Remus lifted his head, looking Roman in the eye. “Promise?”

Roman smiled softly, ruffling his brother’s hair.

“Promise.”

~~~

_We had always been so close. It was like we could read each other’s minds. For years, it was like we were still just two halves of a single whole._

_Unfortunately, we found out soon enough that that bond had dissolved over the years. Before either of us knew it, it was like we were from completely different planets. And neither of us knew when or how it happened._

~~~

“Roman!”

“Yeah?” The creative side called back, looking up from where he was lying on the floor working on a new idea with Remus.

“Can you come here for a moment?”

“Be right there!” Roman hopped to his feet, tugging his shirt down where it had ridden up. “I’ll be right back, ok?” He told his brother, who hummed.

“Grab some water while you’re down there?”

Roman grinned. “Sure!”

Patton was sat on the couch as he bounded down the stairs, and the moral side patted the spot beside him. “Come take a seat, Roman.”

His heart jumped into his throat. Patton sounded serious – had he done something wrong? All his excited energy disappeared as he gingerly took a seat on the couch. Patton passed him a crumpled piece of paper.

“What is…?”

“Just read it. Tell me what you think.”

Oh, had Patton written something? Did he want feedback? He took it carefully, smoothing it with his fingers before scanning the page.

Roman’s face morphed into shock as he read, and he looked up at Patton with wide eyes. “Patton, I… I can explain!”

The moral side held up a hand, and Roman shut his mouth quickly. “You don’t have to say anything. I know what happened.”

Roman hung his head. “I’m sorry, Morality, we were just… trying to have some fun with the project. We didn’t mean for Thomas to get in trouble.”

Patton sighed, resting a comforting hand on Roman’s shoulder. “ _You’re_ not in trouble, Roman. But I wanted to talk to you alone… about Remus.”

“What… about him?” The creative side ventured cautiously. Patton sat up straight, prompting Roman to look at him.

“You need to stop letting Remus help you with projects like this.”

Roman’s mouth gaped open as he comprehended what Patton had said. The moral side tapped the paper in Roman’s lap.

“Because if he keeps helping, Thomas is going to get more of these sent home to his parents. We both know it was because of him that the project turned out the way it did. I’m not blaming you, I should have been more careful and kept a closer eye on what Thomas was doing.”

“But, Patton, you don’t understand, we—”

“You can still spend time with him if you want. As long as he keeps his brand of creativity confined within the mindscape, it’ll be alright. Thomas is a good person, I can’t let Remus ruin that for him.”

Roman couldn’t believe his ears. Was all of this really coming from Patton?

“But I promised him I’d let him help Thomas more, what am I supposed to do?”

Patton winced. “Roman, why did you go and do that? You know how I—Thomas feels about some of the things Remus comes up with.”

“Because he helps me! He comes up with ideas better than I ever could sometimes!”

_Because I wasn’t complete without him._

The moral side chewed on his lip, thinking. Then he huffed a small sigh and smiled at Roman. “Alright, then how about this? Remus can help you when you’re brainstorming, but things like this,” he pointed to the letter, “have to get run through me before Thomas starts working on them. That way, we can avoid doing something wrong like this again. Fair?”

_No._

“…Ok. I’ll make sure to run things by you first.”

Patton smiled wider, and he pulled Roman into a tight hug. “I’m proud of you, Roman. You create so many things that make Thomas happy. We’ll get past this just fine.”

Roman swallowed past the lump in his throat and smiled weakly. “Y-Yeah, ok. Can… I go back to my room now?”

He was released from the hug and with a last ruffle of his hair, Roman was allowed to stand up. He stood tall, keeping his hands curled tightly at his sides to hide how he was shaking.

In his foggy state, he didn’t notice the figure looking out from the banister dart up the stairs, nor did he hear the door slam down the hall.

Remus glanced up as his brother entered the room, sitting up and crossing his legs. “Told you he didn’t like me.”

Roman jumped, rubbing his arm guiltily. “You heard…?”

The younger twin stared at Roman, intent. “You’re not going to listen to him, right? We can’t let Morality tell us what to do. He doesn’t get to decide what ideas Thomas has, what he gets to create. That’s our job.”

“Well, we can’t just ignore him either. Thomas got in trouble because of us, Remus. Because of our project.”

“Because of me, you mean.”

Roman hesitated, staring at the ground. “I… I don’t know.”

“Oh, but I do. Morality doesn’t like anything I do. He doesn’t like how he can’t _control_ what I do. I do what I want, when I want, and there’s nothing he can do about it!”

“Remus—”

“It’s true! Why do you think he just called you down to talk, when I’m the one he’s mad at? It’s cause he thinks he can control you too. But he’s not the boss of us! Now come on, let’s get back to this, Thomas is waiting!”

Remus threw himself back onto his stomach, grabbing his pencil. Roman stayed where he was, watching Remus add to their joint art project. He looked up after his brother didn’t move. “What are you doing? Come on, help me out!”

“I… I can’t.”

“You… can’t help me?”

“No—Yes—That wasn’t what I meant!”

Remus narrowed his eyes. “Ok…?”

Roman took a deep, shaky breath. “I meant… I can’t just… do whatever I want. We need to listen to Morality.”

His brother’s eye twitched, but his expression otherwise remained neutral. “No, we don’t.”

“Patton knows what Thomas wants better than we do. If he says that we need to hold back a little, then we should.”

Remus watched him for a moment before he silently got to his feet. He stalked up to his brother, shoulders back and chin raised.

“Fight me.”

Roman blinked. “What?”

“Fight me. If you win, we do what Morality says.” Remus mocked, a glint in his eye. “But if I win, we do what we want, and forget about trying to please Morality. Or any of the others, while we’re at it.”

“Remus, please, I don’t want--”

“Are you agreeing with me then?”

“W-Well, no, but--”

“Then we have no choice. C’mon, the Imagination is waiting.”

Remus’s voice somehow held its usual energy with none of the warmth. He shoved his way past Roman, glancing back at him expectantly. Realizing his brother wasn’t giving him a choice, Roman followed him with a sinking feeling in his stomach that, no matter who won this match, things would never be the same. 

~~~

Throughout the years, the twins had both grown adept at manipulating the Imagination. It was their second home, their safe place, somewhere they could be wholly, unabashedly themselves without scrutiny.

Roman, as the Creativity Thomas called on the most, had grown to be disciplined. Organized chaos, as Logan had once described him. Ideas filtered dozens of times before they were allowed through, already fully formed. He was fantasy worlds, built with careful precision. Every piece in its place. He went to great lengths to protect his ideas, hypersensitive to criticism and critique. 

Remus was the exact opposite. With no filter in sight, he let any and all thoughts he had spill out without a care in the world. He was pieces of dialogue or character that come in the shower or late at night, there one moment and gone the next. Fleeting, constantly jumping from one idea to the next without stopping to build foundations along the way. He didn’t care what others thought of him or his ideas, deaf to cries of disgust or suggestions to improve.

When they worked together, they could move mountains.

When they fought…

The Imagination shook with the sheer energy the two were exerting. Remus battered against Roman’s defenses with everything he could think of. Monsters, explosions, even his own weapons. No matter what he did, the castle walls Roman had thrown up stood tall, unyielding.

Remus, however, couldn’t handle that kind of beating. After rounds of constant attacks, the younger twin was finally taken down by a blow to the head that left him seeing stars.

He laid still, staring up at the sky. Storm clouds were rolling in. Not surprising; the Imagination was connected to their emotions, and tended to reflect their moods.

The remnants of their battle faded into dust and Remus rolled his head to the side, catching sight of Roman as he walked towards him. The elder twin’s face was schooled into a neutral expression, jaw clenched tight as he stopped at Remus’s feet and stared down at him.

Remus let a humorless laugh slip out, eyes sliding shut. “Kill me now. I’d rather die than have to listen to Morality.”

He heard Roman swallow, and felt a soft kick to his foot. “Get up.”

“Nope.”

“Get up, Remus.”

He cracked an eye open, and saw Roman had turned around.

“We’re going to be late for dinner. Let’s go.”

“Forget it. I’m staying here. Morality probably won’t even notice I’m not there.”

Roman rolled his shoulders back, standing straight. “Fine. Suit yourself.”

Remus closed his eyes again, not wanting to watch his brother walk away. Cold drops of rain started to fall, burning like ice against his skin. They ran down his cheeks, mixing with salty tears and falling to the muddy ground.

Roman stepped out of the Imagination, the dirt and dust that had gotten on his clothes vanishing as he did so. He heard someone knock at the door and he told them he’d be down in a moment. Footsteps walked away, and it was all Roman could do to not collapse into a heap right there.

He had to be strong. That was what everyone expected – needed – from him. He couldn’t show weakness or back down from a challenge, even something like this.

Wiping the moisture from his eyes with the heel of his hand, he plastered a confident smile on his face and left the room.

~~~

Dinner was a quiet affair. Patton tried to engage Roman several times, asking about his latest projects. After receiving one word answers to his questions, the moral side realized that Roman wasn’t in the mood to talk. He tried to turn the conversation to Valentine, but he was equally quiet. He scarfed down his food and excused himself quietly, leaving his dishes in the sink.

Patton chewed on his lip as Roman followed suit. Soon he was left alone with Logan, who didn’t seem concerned at the strange behavior.

“What’s up with them? I haven’t seen either of them all day, do you think something happened, Logan?”

The logical side adjusted his glasses. “I haven’t seen Roman today, but I do know that Valentine is sulking because I asked him to leave me alone while I was working with Thomas on his homework.”

Patton sighed – that wasn’t new. Logan had never been very keen on listening to Valentine’s excited rants, even when he wasn’t on a deadline. “You know Logan, you should try and indulge him every once in a while. I know you take your work very seriously, but Thomas needs to take breaks sometimes.”

“I allow him to take breaks. And Roman takes him off on wild adventures, that’s more than enough of a stress reliever. All Valentine wants is to keep Thomas in front of the TV all day watching any number of ridiculous shows and movies. He’s going to ruin his vision at this rate.”

At any other time, Patton would have made a joke about that, given that both he and Logan had taken to wearing glasses themselves in the past few years. Instead, he pursed his lips, setting his silverware down.

“Logan… you of all people should know that’s not true. Valentine keeps Thomas happy and he offers a distraction when things are hard.”

Logan rolled his eyes dismissively. “But Thomas doesn’t need a distraction, he needs to focus! He’s started thinking about what he wants to do as a career, and Roman has gotten it into his head that he wants to do something creative. That takes a lot of work and time, we can’t waste that precious time on the couch doing nothing!”

Patton held his hands up in surrender. “I’m not trying to fight with you Logan! I just… think you might be selling Passion short, that’s all.”

The logical side narrowed his eyes. “Well, you certainly can’t lecture me about that then.”

“H-Huh?”

Logan pushed his plate to the side, having finished his meal, and set his chin in his hand. He stared at Patton with an unimpressed look. “If I’m selling Valentine short, then you’re doing the same with Remus.”

Patton spluttered, waving his hands around as if to clear the air. “Those are two completely different things!”

“Are they?”

“Yes! Valentine may cause Thomas to be lazy sometimes, but that’s nothing compared to the trouble Remus causes! Thomas got a letter sent to his parents because of his contributions! He doesn’t listen to anyone, Logan, what else am I supposed to do?”

“Limiting him is not going to be good for Thomas in the long run.”

“And that goes for Valentine too!”

They stared at each other for a long moment; two strong wills incapable of backing down from their particular stance. Eventually, Patton gave a huge sigh and let his shoulders drop.

“Look, let’s just… talk about this tomorrow?” Logan nodded silently, gathering both of their plates and taking them to the sink. He rinsed them off and grabbed a cloth to wash them.

Patton packed away the leftover food in Tupperware, knowing as he did so that it would be gone the next morning. He’d long given up trying to catch the thieves – they somehow knew when he was waiting up for them. Anytime he did hear someone pass by his door and sneak downstairs, it ended up being Remus up for a midnight snack. It was impossible to feed the side enough to keep him full, apparently.

At least it was usually healthy food. Or he was very good at sneaking the cookies, because Patton never caught him with one. 

After grabbing a towel and drying the dishes silently beside Logan, they went back to their own rooms to think, and plan what they would say the next morning.

~~~

Remus awoke to a dark, quiet room. After he’d left the Imagination, he had climbed up to his bunk and swaddled himself in blankets, hiding from the world. His chest was aching, and he had a splitting headache that had only gotten slightly better with sleep.

The side sat up, extracting himself from the blankets as he tried to determine what time it was. A glance at the clock below him told him it was past midnight. He groaned quietly – god, he was hungry. Why did he think skipping dinner was a good idea?

That coupled with his headache made for a very grumpy Remus. He clambered down the bunk bed ladder and barely spared a glance at his twin sprawled none so gracefully on his own bed.

Remus crept out of the room, easing the squeaky door closed without a sound. He’d become practiced at this over the years – the darkness no longer bothered him. In fact, he’d grown accustomed to it, his eyes adjusting to see in dull shades of gray.

He knew that Patton knew he snuck downstairs for food, but he had yet to realize why he did so. Thankfully, the few times he’d been caught, he was hungry enough to use the late night snack excuse. Remus tiptoed down the stairs, skipping the one that creaked and stepping on the outside of the last two to keep them silent. Then he heard a small sniffle and Remus froze. He wasn’t alone.

Though it was pitch black, Remus could make out a shadow on the couch, hunched over with his head in his hands. There was another stifled cry, and Remus knew immediately who it was.

“…Val?”

Remus heard him suck in a breath through his teeth and saw him look up blindly towards the stairs. “Remus? Is that you?”

“What’s wrong? Are you ok?” Remus asked, shuffling over to the couch and perching on the armrest.

Valentine shook his head and laughed softly. “No, but… you don’t wanna hear me talk about it. Nobody actually cares about what I have to say.”

Remus narrowed his eyes, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Who told you that?” He shook Valentine slightly when the side remained quiet. “Val, _who told you that?_ I’ll kill ‘em for you.”

“Don’t kill anyone, Rem. I’m fine, really.” The statement didn’t convince him, considering his voice cracked and Remus could hear him struggling with every word.

“Valentine Sanders. Tell me who told you nobody cares. Now.” He didn’t bother trying to hide his building anger. Valentine shrunk, hanging his head.

“Lo…Logan did. He said that… all I do is make things harder for everyone else, make it so you guys can’t do your jobs because I always distract him from what’s ‘important’…”

“You know that’s all bullshit, right?”

Valentine gasped. “Remus!”

“It’s true! Listen, if Thomas really didn’t need you, then you would have faded away a long time ago! The fact that you’re here means you do things for Thomas that none of us can do for him!”

“But they don’t like what I do…” Valentine mumbled, and Remus groaned. He hopped off the couch and went over to flip on the lights. Everyone was asleep anyways, and he knew Valentine couldn’t see in the dark like he could.

The side on the couch flinched as the room was flooded with light, covering his eyes. “Remus, what are you doing?!”

The creative side stalked back over to Valentine, plopping down on the floor in front of him. He waited until his friend was able to open his eyes without being blinded, staring at him with an intense gaze.

“Do you think what you do is important?” Remus asked, putting his hand on Valentine’s knee. Valentine twisted his fingers in his hair, not meeting Remus’s eyes.

“Well, yeah, _I_ do, but Logan—”

“It doesn’t matter what Logan thinks. He can go suck a—”

“That’s easy for you to say.” Valentine cut him off, shaking his head. “Thomas actually listens to you. He’s been ignoring every attempt I make to get him invested into something! It’s like, every time I open my mouth, there’s someone else who’s talking louder and has his attention.”

Remus snickered. “Yeah right, Thomas doesn’t listen to me.”

“But… you’re his Creativity…?”

“Morality made a deal with Roman that anything I help with, he has to look at before we give it to Thomas. And for years, he’s always tried to keep me quiet, away from Roman and anything that might make it to Thomas. He thinks I’m dangerous.”

Valentine snapped his head up, staring at Remus with wide eyes. “That’s how Logan treats me! He thinks I’m lazy and all I do is distract Thomas from ‘more important’ things. All I want is for him to be happy! Ugh, why do we have to listen to them? They don’t care about us!”

“We don’t.”

“Yes, we do. After all, they’re the ones who are in charge, if we don’t do what they say we’ll just continue to be ignored.” Valentine sighed.

Remus had an odd look on his face. “No, we won’t. Morality and Logic aren’t the only ones who control what Thomas thinks and knows.”

“If you’re talking about Roman, I doubt he’s gonna help us go against those two. He’s their favorite, he’s not gonna give that up.”

The creative side shook his head, a grin slowly growing on his face. “No, I don’t mean Roman. I mean the others. The ones who live in the hallway past our rooms.”

“Remus! Patton said we aren’t supposed to go down that way, it’s dangerous, you could get hurt—”

“I’ve been there every week for years. Do I look hurt to you?”

Valentine’s mouth gaped open, and he dropped his voice into a hushed whisper, as if he would get in trouble if the walls heard his words. “What’s it like there? Is it scary? What are… the others like?”

“Well, it’s dark. But you get used to it – I’ve been able to see in pitch black for a while now. There are two sides who live over there. Fear’s… well, I don’t see him much, honestly. But Deceit is amazing. He can control what we tell Thomas. If he doesn’t want to know something, then it’s Deceit’s job to make sure we don’t tell him.”

“But I thought that was Morality’s job?”

Remus shook his head. “No. Morality can ask us to stop, and we do because we think he has power over us. But Deceit can actually stop us from talking, if he wants to. But,” Remus’s grin grew wicked, a mischievous glint in his eyes, “that also means that he can make sure that Thomas doesn’t ignore us.”

Valentine was shaking with barely controlled excitement. “He can make it so Thomas doesn’t ignore me anymore?! Please, Remus, you have to take me there! That’s all I’ve wanted for so long!”

“I can, but Val, if I do… you probably can’t come back.”

That made him pause, staring at his hands. “You mean…”

Remus sighed. “Morality and Logic both know what’s over there, and most importantly they think the sides over there are dangerous. If you’re gonna ask them for help…”

Valentine swallowed hard. “I… If I leave, they’ll think _I’m_ a bad guy too. Roman, he’ll think I abandoned him.”

“Well…”

Valentine whined in the back of his throat, rubbing at his eyes as tears welled up again. “Oh god, Remus, I can’t leave him alone! But I can’t stand staying here anymore! What am I supposed to do?!”

Remus shrugged helplessly as his friend broke down in front of him. This was not his forte – Passion had always been the most emotional one of them all, being largely responsible for many of Thomas’s feelings. All he could do was gently pat his knee in a vague attempt to comfort him.

“I mean… I think Roman would rather you do what’s best for you, rather than suffer here just because of him. Cause he’s got that whole ‘chivalry’ thing going on. And besides, your room and a lot of your stuff will still be here, he’ll still have pieces of you to remember.”

The words sounded weak to him, but something about what he said made Valentine freeze, slowly lowering his hands from his eyes.

“Remus, that’s it! You’re a genius!”

“Uhhh…”

“If I give them my responsibilities, it’s like I’m not really leaving at all! But I won’t have to be ignored for them anymore!”

“W-What are you talking about?” Remus asked, confused at Valentine’s constant shifting moods.

“It’s perfect, Remus! Thomas needs the things I do, but I don’t want to do them anymore because the others don’t know how important they are. But if I give it to them, they’ll have to realize! Then once they do, I can take them back and everything will go back to normal!”

“But they’re not you, Valentine, how are they supposed to do your job?!” Remus couldn’t imagine ever doing someone else’s job – they had their titles for a reason!

“I’ll give them things that are close to what they already represent. Like, for Roman, he can get all the love of cartoons and movies and things like that, since he already likes fantasy it’ll be easy for him! Morality already looks out for Thomas and his friends, so what’s the difference if he now feels the emotions that come along with that? And Logic…”

Valentine started giggling widely, and Remus hoped that everyone else was fast asleep and wouldn’t come down to check on the noise.

“Logic… he’ll get what I’ve been trying to tell him all this time. He likes making sure Thomas can focus on the things he needs to learn, so I’ll give him that drive to learn. See what he thinks when he finally feels some emotion in that stone-cold heart of his!”

His eyes were wild and his smile was too wide. Remus started to wonder if he should have just kept his mouth shut. “Val, what does that leave you? You’re giving away everything! You could die!”

“No… No, I’ll keep something. I’ll be alright! After all, it’s just for the time it takes for them to realize that they need me. Then I’ll come back and everything will go back to normal!”

He paused, chewing his lip. “But, they can’t know where I went. If they know I went to the other side, they’ll just try to bring me back. So, Remus... I need you to promise me that you won’t tell them where I am. No matter what, you can’t tell them I went to the dark side.”

Remus stared at him. “...I can’t.”

“Remus, please, if they wake up tomorrow and find me missing they’re going to go searching and you know that they’ll ask you--”

“I’m coming with you.” 

Remus’s voice was steady, and he met Valentine’s shocked expression with a confident smile. “I never belonged here anyways. It’s surprising I lasted this long without being kicked out. But Deceit can make it so Thomas will finally _listen_ to me again.”

Valentine took a look, deep breath. “...What about Roman?”

Remus huffed, trying to play it off. “It’s like you said. He’s their favorite. He’s already chosen his side. It’s just up to us to choose ours now.”

They stared at each other for a long, quiet moment. They both came to the same conclusion, and nodded at each other. 

“Let’s go.”

Remus told Valentine about his weekly food runs he’d been doing for Deceit and Fear, and about how the other side didn’t often have food. They raided the kitchen, stuffing their pockets and arms full of food. The kitchen would restock itself in time, Remus knew they would manage. 

The two snuck upstairs, past the closed bedroom doors. Remus had Valentine walk in front, realizing that if he went first, they ran a high risk of Valentine running into him and making noise. 

Remus paused at his bedroom door. He turned to face it, staring blankly. 

“...You don’t have to come with me, Remus.” Valentine mumbled quietly, eyes soft as he heard the creative side stop moving behind him. “I’ll be alright on my own.”

Remus sucked in a shaky breath, trying to steady his hands so he didn’t drop anything. He could stay. He could go back to sleep and pretend this was all a dream. Give Valentine the food in his arms and tell him how to find Deceit. And when he woke up in the morning, he would feign ignorance. Maybe even tell them that he’d witnessed Passion fade away right before his eyes, all because of their ignorance and willful neglect. 

He could hold it against them. He could use it as leverage. He could prove that he’s not the one who’s dangerous to Thomas. Maybe it would be enough to get Morality to give up on trying to control him and his brother. 

They could stay together, and _they_ could take control. No longer would Patton be in charge. 

Remus snickered and shook his head, turning back to Valentine and marching into the hallway with his head held high. 

Maybe he was the evil twin after all.


	4. So... What Now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ell, I adore you and I probably would not have ever finished this chapter without your help.

Roman awoke slowly, the dreams of the past fading to black. His chest ached. He hadn’t only experienced the memories from his own perspective, but he’d seen things through his brother’s eyes. He thought his thoughts, and felt his emotions. 

He’d always imagined that Remus had left in a fit of fury, cursing his brother with every step. Promising to hinder him in every endeavor, remind him that he was never truly enough for Thomas. 

Roman never considered that he’d wanted so desperately to _stay._

He swallowed past the growing lump in his throat and kept his eyes screwed shut. He didn’t want to open them - didn’t want to face the world just yet. Not when his chest hurt so badly. “Remus...” he whispered, voice cracking as a tear leaked from the corner of his eye. 

“... Yeah?”

Roman’s eyes shot open at the familiar voice, and he screeched as two wide eyes met his, mere inches from his face. The creative side scrambled away, legs tangling in his bedsheets and he crashed to the floor to the sound of joyous, maniacal laughter. 

“Remus?!?!” 

“The one and only!” His brother crooned, swinging back and forth from the upper frame of the bed. He’d ripped off the sheer curtain that normally hung there and thrown it off to the side, then somehow hung himself upside down from the frame. Roman stared at him, mouth gaping. 

“Why are you...?”

“You were asleep for soooo loooonnnngggg, I got bored! I was starting to think you were the dead one, not me! I had to make sure you kept breathing!”

Roman blinked. His mind had suddenly gone blank, and there was one thing that came to mind. 

“Aren’t you too heavy for that?”

As if on cue, the curtain frame creaked and bent under Remus’s weight, and he crashed hard onto the bed where Roman had been lying not a minute prior. Roman held his face in his hands, trying to reconcile the storm of emotions still raging in his heart, with the fact that Remus was lying in front of him with his neck at a very unfortunate angle. 

“Remus, your head.”

“On it!” The other side chirped, sitting up and grabbing his head firmly between his hands, snapping his neck back to its normal position. Roman winced at the sound. 

“Remus, how are you... here? I saw you... you died! You turned to dust!”

Remus swung his legs over the side of the bed, kicking them idly as he stared down at his brother. “Yeah, I did. Your point?”

“Wha--? Oh, that’s it. I must be dreaming! The battle did take a lot out of me, that’s bound to give me strange dreams!” Roman babbled, Remus watching with an amused smirk. He slowly got to his feet, legs shaking so badly he nearly collapsed again. He laughed awkwardly, rubbing at his chest. The ache was still there, and it was starting to worry him. 

He tried to put it aside for the moment, looking around at his surroundings and finding it was very familiar. 

“Is this... my room? Why am I here? I fell asleep in the Imagination, didn’t I? So why--”

“Our room.”

Roman turned and stared at Remus, who was watching him with an unreadable expression. “What?”

“It’s _our_ room. Just because I left it, doesn’t mean it’s any less my corner of the mind.”

Roman swallowed, averting his eyes from the intense stare. “Right. Did you... did you see what I saw? The memories from when we were younger?”

“Yep! I got to relive the glory days when I could beat you in an Imagination battle! Before you started cheating and getting help from Logic~”

“I’m not the one who started the cheating.” Roman droned, not taking the bait. After a moment of silence, the prince gingerly sat on the edge of the bed, arms tight to his body as he tried to make himself small. “So... you and Valentine...”

Remus sideyed his brother. “Yeah?”

Roman chewed his lip, twisting his hands nervously. “The... the memories I saw stopped after you two left, so... did you, I mean... was it... ok? There? On the other side?” He stuttered. “Were you ok? Did Deceit and Fear accept you?”

Remus laid back on the bed, hands behind his head as he kicked his legs high in the air. “Deceit did. Fear never liked us. I was too weird and Val was too energetic. He just stayed in his room and listened to his emo music and felt sorry for himself.” The words would be biting if Remus hadn’t said them so nonchalantly. “But then again, I dunno if he liked anyone back then.”

“And Passion... Valentine, he...” Roman choked, heart aching as he connected the dots. “What happened?”

Remus tensed, fists curling so tightly he might break the skin of his palms. Then he sighed.

“He gave away everything he had, and it destroyed him. Maybe he could have gone back to the way he was before, at one point, but he saw you guys were... happy without him. Without us. You didn’t need anyone but you three. So he stayed on the dark side, and let his mind twist into what he is now. You figured that much out, right?”

Roman nodded, stomach churning. “He... turned into Obsession.”

He knew he should be sad. Passion had been his closest friend as a child, after Remus. They had spent every day together, laughing and playing in the Imagination without a care in the world. Valentine’s relentless enthusiasm had often been the only thing pushing him forward, when nothing he created satisfied him. 

Tears pricked at his eyes and he took a shuddering breath, tilting his head back to try and keep them from falling. He let out a breathless laugh, rubbing at his cheek. 

“What’s so funny?” Remus sneered. 

Roman’s breath hitched. “I... for all this time, I thought... he was just... gone. That he disappeared... alone. And I thought... maybe, if I had just... paid a little more attention... involved him just a little more... maybe I could have kept him here. Or at least... I could have been there for him when he...”

He cut himself off, shaking his head as if to physically force the thought out of his head. “But... now I know that... he wasn’t alone. Not once. Even if he had disappeared that day, you were with him... Thank you, Remus, for taking care of him.”

Roman could feel his brother’s eyes boring into the back of his head. Then Remus barked a humorless laugh and jumped to his feet. He watched as the duke stalked back and forth in front of him, anger pouring off of him in waves. 

“R-Remus? What’s wrong?”

“I get it. I thought after you saw things from my point of view, you’d finally get it. But you’re just as blind as you were back then.”

“H-Hey, that’s not fair! I was just thanking you for taking Valentine with you when you left! I was trying to be nice! You didn’t have to do that, you can have just left on your own!”

“Oh, so you’re saying that I had to leave, then?!”

“You said it yourself, didn’t you? You never belonged on this side! You never even liked it here so of course you left! Why are you getting mad at me?!”

“You’re such a fucking idiot!”

He balled his fists, facing away from Roman. He sucked in a breath through his teeth and slammed his fist into the wall. He pounded away at the same spot, knuckles bloodied as he screamed, each hit punctuating his words.

“I just wanna bash your stupid skull in! Over and over and over again until your brain is nothing but mush! Maybe then you’d actually be able to understand!!”

“Remus, please stop!!” Roman cried, pushing himself to his feet and cursing how his legs were shaking. 

With one final guttural scream, Remus slammed his head against the wall, fists still curled as they rested there, specks of red against the perfect white paint. Just as quickly as it had manifested, his anger vanished. He crumbled against the wall, barely able to stand. His voice was deathly quiet and he whispered something under his breath.

“I... didn’t quite catch that, Remus, could you--”

“I _said_ I never wanted to leave!”

Roman blinked, a hand outstretched but hesitant. “W-What? But I thought... I mean, I saw you... I know you stopped in front of the door, that night, but I just thought...”

Remus collapsed, legs folded under him at uncomfortable angles and his head hung low. His brother watched as he started shaking, and when Roman heard a quiet sniff he surged forward and tackled Remus in a tight hug from behind. 

“Remus, I’m... so sorry. All this time, I thought you left because you hated me... after we fought that night, I never got the chance to apologize to you...”

“It doesn’t matter.” 

“Of course it does! It’s my fault that Thomas stopped listening to you. If I could have just... stood up for you, like a prince is supposed to, then maybe... maybe we could have...”

Remus shook his head, laughing bitterly. “You know, I was always... jealous of you.”

“Huh? Wait, why?”

He turned to the side to look at Roman over his shoulder. “Because. You were always... loved, by the others. Even when you disagreed with them! It’s... unconditional! They love you and they love your ideas. Just the perfect side.”

Roman’s chest felt like it was going to burst with how much pain he was in. “Remus...”

“The rest of us... the “dark sides”, I guess we’re called now... we’re not really what you’d call a family. More like a bunch of lone wolves working together cause being alone is worse than trying to get along.”

Remus sighed, pushing Roman away as he tried to get to his feet. He avoided looking at his brother, wiping at his cheeks with his sleeve. 

“Well, if we’re being honest with each other then... I’ve always been pretty jealous of you too, Remus.”

The duke froze, blinking in shock. “What? Why?! There’s nothing I’ve got that you don’t!”

“That’s not true. I’ve always been the part of Thomas’s creativity that needs other people’s approval. I can’t just... create something because _I_ want to, I always have to think about whether other people will like it. But you... you can just... create, regardless of what others think!”

Remus chewed his lip, letting a small smile sneak onto his face. He offered a hand to Roman, who grabbed it and pulled himself to his feet. 

“D’ya know why we’re complete opposites? How we’re both Creativity, but we’re so different?” The question came out of the blue and Roman shook his head. Remus grinned, letting the tear tracks dry on his face.

“It’s because we were never supposed to exist, Roman. Not like this! We were never supposed to be brothers. We were supposed to be one side. One Creativity.”

“I remember... we were, once.”

Roman suddenly winced as the pain in his chest spiked, and he would have collapsed if it weren’t for Remus holding him steady. “What’s... what’s happening?! My chest... it hurts so bad!”

“It’s almost time, I think.”

“W-What?”

“When we split, you stayed in the original Creativity’s body while I became a brand new side. The split just took a giant chunk out from you, scooped out all the parts that were bad and formed it into me. Since my actual physical form is gone, I guess... we’re going back to the way we were.”

Roman’s head snapped up, eyes wide as he stared at Remus in disbelief. “Does that mean... we’re going to be...?”

“We’re going to be shoved together again. It’s probably gonna hurt a lot. And we might not fit anymore. It could be agonizing, Roman, and we might just end up like this again!”

Roman shook his head, a soft smile dancing on his lips as he forced himself to stand up straight, without leaning on his brother. He met Remus’s eyes evenly.

“No. We’re going to make it work. I’m never going back to this. We can work together, right?”

Remus snickered, shrugging. “I dunno, that depends on you recognizing my brilliant ideas, doesn’t it?” 

Roman rolled his eyes and pushed at Remus’s shoulder playfully, eliciting a laugh from the other side. Then, as the pain surged and the lights in the room flickered, Roman used the last of his strength to close the distance between them and wrapped his arms around his brother’s shoulders, squeezing as tightly as he could. 

Remus returned the hug after a moment, and they stood there in silence. After so many years. After countless hours of playing and fighting and creating together. After years of arguing and insults and opposing each other. They finally could be simply what they were meant to be.

“Hey, Remus.”

“Hmm?”

“Let’s go... we’ll take care of Thomas... together.”

“... _Please..._

~~~

“He will wake up, Virgil.”

“But what if he doesn’t?! He got hurt fighting Remus, and then he just passed out for no reason! And now this! Or even worse, what if he wakes up and he doesn’t remember anything!? What if he forgets us!?”

“That’s highly unlikely. Roman just needs time to recover from the shock of today’s events, that’s all. And even if he does awaken with some form of amnesia, he will still be Thomas’s Creativity. It may take longer to fall back into a routine, but he _will_ be alright.”

“Please, Roman… open your eyes…”

The side in Patton’s arms shifted, eyelids twitching and dragging in a deep breath. He felt warm fingers carding through his hair, his head and shoulders resting on someone’s lap. There was another set of hands holding his hand hanging off the couch, clutching onto it like a lifeline. His whole body ached, the pain concentrated mostly in his chest and a dull throbbing on the back of his head. The voices around him were garbled, like his ears were full of liquid. He winced, trying to shift his head to the side and relieve the pressure. 

“Roman!”

The voice was loud in his ear. He twitched, cracking one eye open and squinting at the sudden flood of light. The side holding him leaned over, casting a shadow on his face and staring down at him with concern. “Are you alright, Roman?”

Roman... they kept calling him that... was that his name? 

“M-Morality? Is that you?”

The face twisted in acute concern. There was a hand on his forehead, gentle and warm.

“Y-Yes, it’s me, kiddo, it’s your happy pappy Patton! You’re pretty out of it, huh? You haven’t used my title since we told Thomas about our names!”

“Oh... right... Right. Patton. Sorry, Patton, I’m just... a little off...”

The hands holding his squeezed tightly, and the side in Patton’s lap jumped when he saw who was sitting on the floor beside him. 

“F-Fear? What are you doing here?”

The purple-clad side sucked in a breath, tears pricking in his eyes. He quickly let go of his hand, moving away and ducking his head. The offending side was slow to catch up, but he quickly shook his head and waved his hands in the air. 

“S-Sorry, I meant Anxiety... No! Virgil! Virgil, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...”

“It’s ok Princey, I’m just glad you’re ok...” Virgil mumbled, dabbing at his eyes with the edge of his hoodie. 

Princey... he liked that a bit better, but it still didn’t feel right. 

“Don’t stress yourself out, Roman. It will be best if you don’t force yourself to recall information if you are having memory issues.” A third voice spoke up, and a dark shirt with an indigo tie came into view as the side knelt down where Virgil had been sitting. 

“Logic... Logan... I’m... I’m ok, just a little confused...”

He looked around at the three worried faces that were staring back at him, blinking to clear his vision. 

“I’m... not Roman.”

Morality - Patton, he corrected himself - tilted his head in confusion. “W-What do you mean? Of course you are! You’re our one and only Prince Roman!”

“You fell unconscious after your battle with Remus was over. We were going to remain in the Imagination, but it began storming soon after. And your room was locked, so we brought you to the common room to let you sleep.” Logan interrupted, hoping to gently prompt Roman’s memories.

“I... I see...” 

He groaned as a fresh wave of pain bloomed in his chest, and he tried to push himself into a sitting position against his friends’ protests. There were several hands on his back and shoulders, helping him shift to lean against the back of the couch. 

“Take it easy, Princey!”

“Oh, kiddo, are your ribs still hurting?”

“Don’t move too fast, you could cause yourself to faint again.”

He shook his head, taking slow, deep breaths to try and ease the ache. He stared up at the ceiling, trying to calm the thoughts whirling around in his mind enough to understand what he was feeling. 

He wasn’t Roman. He knew that for certain, despite how familiar the name was. Hearing the name in reference to him felt wrong, in a way that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to describe even on a good day. Being called Princey was slightly better, though it was still wrong.

He’d heard the name “Remus” said, and that felt familiar as well. It was wrong too, but familiar, and he wasn’t sure if he’d feel better if they referred to him with that name instead. He didn’t think so. 

“I’m... not Roman... but I am... and I’m not Remus... but I am... I remember... so much, but... it’s like it was a dream... a vivid dream, that I was stuck in for years... I can’t remember the last time I was... awake.”

The three sides shared a worried look with each other. Patton leaned over and rested his hand on the other side’s shoulder. 

“Hey, kiddo, I think that battle really took it out of you. Why don’t we get you into bed, and you can get some more sleep and tell us about it in the morning?”

Sleep was the last thing he wanted, but being alone would be helpful. He could grab a notebook and try to write down his thoughts. He nodded, opening his eyes and looking down to watch his feet and make sure he didn’t trip. 

What he saw made him stop cold. After a tense moment he jumped to his feet, swaying wildly. Logan and Virgil both reached out to steady him but he pulled away, waving his hand in the air to manifest a full length mirror in the middle of the floor. 

He felt like he’d been punched in the diaphragm as his breath wheezed out of him. He didn’t know what he had been expecting to see, really. But what he saw defied any and all expectations he could have held. 

The entirety of his outfit was a light gray, almost silver. Golden trim ran across the entire outfit, and gold epaulettes sat on his shoulders. His collar was short and buttoned to his neck, and there was a stripe of silver hair running through his bangs. Gray pants with gold thread along the seams were tucked into black boots. A red sash crossed from one shoulder down to his waist, and a similar green sash was tied around his waist like a belt.

But his eyes were drawn to one thing, and he ignored the other’s insistences for him to sit down as he turned to the side, studying the emblem sitting proudly on his bicep.

A shield, with a sun and moon in each top corner and star trails connecting them into one sky. A castle stood below, red mountains behind and black seas in front. There were two tentacles curling out of the water on the edge, wrapping up towards the castle. Somehow, he knew it wasn’t threatening the castle, but rather, it was protecting it. Behind the shield was a sword, a black handle with thorny green vines crisscrossing over it.

He couldn’t get enough. His hands gripped the sides of the mirror tightly, eyes darting around to absorb each and every tiny detail. Tears pricked at his eyes and he took in a shuddering breath, resting his forehead against the cool glass. 

The other three sides shared a concerned look, and Patton stepped forward, gently putting a hand on the other’s shoulder. “Hey, hey, it’s ok kiddo. It’ll all be ok. Why don’t we get you back to your room, you can change and get some rest and everything will be better in the morning!”

“... I’m not going to play pretend with you, Patton.”

Patton recoiled, curling his hand against his chest. The fatherly side tried to smile. “W-What are you talking about? I just meant--”

“You want to pretend like all of this never happened. You want to shove away the parts of me that you don’t like and act like they don’t exist, so you don’t have to face the ideas and thoughts that I come up with that make you uncomfortable? Or better yet, you’re going to try and split me up again, so you can just toss the bad parts into the darkness and forget about him!

“Princey, what are you going on about?!”

“Don’t call me Princey! Don’t call me Roman, don’t call me Remus, because I’m not either of them anymore! I’m more than that! I’m a sum of them, more than they ever were separately! I am Thomas’s Creativity! It’s been years since I’ve been myself, and all you want to do is split me apart again!”

The side - Creativity - spun around, gritting his teeth and tears falling freely. Patton shook his head, taking another step back from the sheer force of his glare. “No, Ro-- Creativity, I didn’t mean--”

Creativity held up a hand, refusing to look at Patton. The moral side cut off, whimpering. 

“I... I need some time alone.”

Patton’s breath hitched, but after a moment he nodded and disappeared, presumably back to his room. 

Logan tried to reach for Creativity, but Virgil grabbed his outstretched hand and shook his head. The logical side pursed his lips, and glanced back up.

“If you... change your mind, Creativity, my door is open to you.” Creativity nodded shakily, and in a flash they were gone as well. 

He tangled his hands in his hair, tugging at it and grounding himself. Then he sighed, moving to the stairs and leaning against the banister, staring up into the darkness. “You two can come down now. They’re not coming back for a while.”

At first, there was silence, and Creativity wondered if his intuition had been off. Then he heard a quiet snicker and a familiar voice that made his chest ache from nostalgia. 

“He’s a lot more observant than either of the other two were.” Another voice hummed in agreement, and Creativity watched two black clad figures descend the stairs. 

“You put on quite a show, didn’t you. And I didn’t detect a single lie. I suppose that means Remus really is gone, then?” Deceit asked, face a mask of cool indifference. The corners of Creativity’s mouth tugged upward.

“He’s not gone. Neither is Roman. But they aren’t here anymore. And they’re not coming back. Not if I can help it.” 

Creativity turned to Obsession, and he let his smile grow, though his eyes were tinged with sadness. “It’s been such a long time... do you still remember me?”

Obsession sighed, grabbing Creativity’s hand and running his thumb over his knuckles. “I’m... not the side I used to be. I lost that part of myself... a long time ago. But... yes, I remember. More vividly than I’d like, sometimes.”

“... I understand. Everything’s rushing back to me...” Creativity bit his lip, trying to force down the lump in his throat. Obsession pulled him into a tight embrace, whispering comforting words and encouragement into his ear. 

“I’m sorry... Valentine, I’m so sorry... I wasn’t there for you...”

“Hey, hey, enough of that. Don’t blame yourself. I’m responsible for my actions, not you. Got it?” Obsession’s voice was stern, and Creativity pulled away to look at both him and Deceit. 

“Maybe I didn’t drive you away, but Roman didn’t help when he started calling you ‘dark sides!’ But I can help now. I’m going to fix the mistakes they made. I’m going to make them listen to me. Make them understand how much we want to help! I’m going to try and change the way things are!”

Obsession chuckled low, patting his bicep. “You always were one to think big, weren’t you? That’s a pipe dream, things have been this way since Thomas was a kid. What makes you think things can change now?”

Creativity set his shoulders, giving both of them a confident smile. “And until today, I was split into two pieces of myself that hated each other to death. Anything’s possible.”

“If you take the lead... maybe things finally can change.” Deceit added, turning back to the stairs. “Anyways, Creativity, you asked to be alone, so we should abide your wishes.”

“One thing, before you two go.” Obsession and Deceit turned to him, eyebrows raised. “No matter what the others say... my room is always open to you, alright? Feel free to visit anytime!”

“We’ll... keep that in mind.” Deceit told him, and Obsession waved gently before they both sunk out, back to their side of the mindscape. Creativity shivered, vivid memories of cold nights and huddling together under a threadbare blanket washing over him. 

He would change that. He didn’t care how long it took, or even if the others hated him for it. He knew the unique, numb pain that came from living there, and he refused to let his friends suffer it any longer. Not while he had the power to help. 

~~~

Creativity took the long way up to his room, both to give himself more time to clear his head, and because he wasn’t sure he was up for sinking out like the others had. 

He passed by Logan’s room, whose door was cracked open enough to see the logical side hunched over at his desk, reading a book. Creativity smiled fondly. It seemed like he’d changed the least over the years. It was comforting, in a strange way. He’d never really gotten along with Logic as a child - they were complete opposites, after all. 

But now? The offer to talk to him and sort through his swirling emotions with his help was overwhelmingly tempting. 

He shook his head, moving on before he gave in. Logan was a good listener, but even with Passion’s gift, he wouldn’t be able to understand what he was feeling.

Virgil’s door was also open, though between the all black door and the dim lighting inside, that wasn’t easy to tell. Creativity regretted his words when he woke up - Virgil had looked so sad, hearing his old name. He would apologize, Creativity promised himself. Tomorrow, after everyone had had a good night's sleep. 

The last door was closed tightly, and on a whim Creativity silently tried to turn the handle. Locked. Somehow, he wasn’t surprised.

Finally, his room. The door was completely blank, no distinguishing characteristics to designate it as his. Gone was the painted designs and hung sign labeling it as Roman’s. The corner of his mouth twitched upward. A blank slate. Perfect.

Creativity leaned against the door as he stepped in, letting it click closed quietly. He took a deep breath, the emotions swirling wildly in his chest threatening to burst. 

He started giggling at nothing, spinning around and around until his head spun. He danced to a tune nobody else could hear, laughter and tears bubbling from him in equal measure. 

There were no words to describe the unbridled joy that coursed through his veins. Creativity grabbed a pillow as he flopped onto his bed, hugging it tightly to his chest and squealing into it. He kicked his legs in the air as his giggles died down, though the warmth in his chest didn’t fade. 

“I missed you...”

“I missed us...”

“I missed... me!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment and subscribe!  
> Come chat with me on Tumblr! @dragonsaphirareads


	5. Epilogue

After two weeks, Creativity could count the number of words Patton had spoken to him on one hand. 

It wasn’t like the feeling wasn’t mutual. Creativity was in no rush to go back to the way things were. Patton didn’t mean to hurt him, of course - none of them did - but that didn’t change how it was his influence that had led to him splitting himself apart, all those years ago. 

Part of him wanted to forgive Patton. Part of him wanted to ignore him forever. Creativity could guess which of his pieces felt which way. 

It led to him feeling rather indifferent about the whole thing, tired from the internal conflict.

The other two had tried to give the two of them space and let them work things out on their own. But after dinner one night when Patton cleared everyone’s dishes from the table and set the dishwasher running with only a vague smile in the general direction of the couch before he retired to his room, they broke. 

“Don’t you care that he’s ignoring you?” Virgil asked, hissing slightly as he tried to keep his voice under control. Creativity looked up from the script in his hands, checking the final draft before they filmed the video the next week. 

“He’s not exactly ignoring me...” Creativity mumbled. Did they really have to have this conversation now? 

“He’s spoken exactly four words to you in the last two weeks, unless you two spoke within that period and I’m not aware of it.” Logan interjected. Creativity huffed, putting the script down. 

“No, he hasn’t said anything to me. But I haven’t been trying either. What makes you think I want him to talk to me?”

Virgil shrunk back at that, though Logan didn’t seem phased. “Don’t you... want to make up with him? Don’t you want him to apologize for what happened?”

“The way I see it, I’m the one who said ‘bad things’ to Patton. If anyone should be apologizing, shouldn’t it be me?” Creativity droned.

“But...”

He sighed, leaning over and dropping the script in Logan’s lap before standing up and stretching his arms above his head, feeling his joints pop. “I know if you were in my situation, you’d want apologies from whoever hurt you. But what’s the point of getting them if they don’t mean anything? I’m not interested in empty words or fake apologies. If he’s avoiding me, then I hope that means he’s putting some actual thought into this whole thing.”

Virgil reached out and snatched Creativity’s wrist before he could walk away, staring at him with wide eyes. “But if you two don’t talk, you might never make up!”

“Virgil, if Deceit came down the stairs right now and apologized for everything that happened between the two of you, would you believe he was being genuine?” Creativity stared intently as he asked.

The former dark side blinked, and he suddenly couldn’t meet Creativity’s eyes. “That’s not... That’s different... Patton’s not Deceit... and I’m not you! You’ve always gotten along with Patton! You hate getting into fights with him! So why--”

“ _Roman_ disliked getting into disagreements with Patton. But we should not expect Creativity to react the same way. Remember, Virgil, he’s not just Roman anymore.” Logan gently reminded him, and Virgil hung his head. 

“I know... I just... I don’t want you two to end up like... like we did.”

Creativity knew he was referring to his and Deceit’s strained relationship. Even with Remus’s memories, he still didn’t know the full details of everything that had gone down between them. Whatever had happened, it had clearly ruined a good relationship they’d had.

He smiled, leaning over to pat Virgil’s shoulder softly. “Thank you, for worrying about me. I really do appreciate it.”

“Patton will come around in his own time. It’s frustrating, but unfortunately, feelings are not something that can be explained or fixed like a material object.” Creativity blinked, then he grinned in Logan’s direction. The logical side raised an eyebrow. “What? Did I say something odd?”

“No... I’m just... surprised, that’s all. You’ve come a long way from where you used to be, Logan. I’m... proud of you.”

The logical side froze, staring down at the script in his hands in shock. Creativity laughed softly. 

“Oops, I think I broke him! Make sure Logan gets to bed sometime tonight, will you Virgil? I’m gonna go and finish up some other things in my room.” 

Virgil watched the creative side round the stairs and disappear from view, footsteps echoing above them. Then he reached over to snap his fingers in front of Logan’s face, breaking him out of his frozen state. 

“You know, I’m still having a little trouble remembering that that’s not Princey, but when he says stuff like that?”

Logan cleared his throat, adjusting his glasses with the faintest tinge of red in his cheeks. “Indeed. Now, shall we... retire for the night?”

Virgil snickered as Logan stood up quickly, crumpling the script in his haste to leave the common area before the anxious side noticed his blushing. Unfortunately for him, Virgil was nothing if not observant. 

“Hey Lo?”

Logan stopped halfway up the stairs, staring down. “Yes, Virgil?”

“For what it’s worth, I’m proud of you too, teach.”

Virgil couldn’t see him blush, but his hasty retreat and door slam was enough to tell him the truth. Virgil chuckled. Wow, he should try doing that more often.

~~~

Creativity had no shortage of projects to work on. Besides Thomas’s normal workload, he’d been working daily to develop new ideas - worlds they could explore, concepts Roman never would have considered, ideas Remus never could have cultivated. It kept him up late every night, long after the others had gone to bed. 

He couldn’t help it! For the first time, his work finally meant something to him. And he just knew it would show when he finally shared it. 

His hand was on fire, swapping back and forth between his notebook and sketchpad, ideas flowing as smooth as a river. There was nothing holding him back but the cramps that he occasionally had to shake out of his hand. 

Creativity paused. He thought he’d heard something; the smallest of noises that had broken him out of his creative trance. His hand hovered, pencil still tightly in his grip. 

There it was again! It was coming from behind him, beyond his door. It sounded like a knock... Creativity glanced at the clock on his nightstand; it was just past midnight. It was probably Logan, coming to make him go to bed and give him a lecture on the importance of healthy sleeping habits. 

“C...Creativity? Are you still awake?” 

That... wasn’t Logan. Creativity tensed, his left hand shaking uncontrollably. Whether it was from fear or anger, he wasn’t quite sure. 

He gently held his left hand in his right, running his thumb over his knuckle. “It’s ok... he can’t hurt us... I won’t let him.”

The creative side stood, his back screaming in protest as he moved to the door. He took a deep breath and opened it, trying to suppress both a smile and a sneer at the sight of him. 

“Patton. It’s late, shouldn’t you be asleep?”

“I... I wanted to talk to you... if you’ll let me?”

Creativity wanted to slam the door in his face. He wanted to make an excuse, tell Patton he was tired and could they just talk another day?

But against his better judgement, he moved aside. Patton took it as a silent invitation and after a moment he stepped inside, searching Creativity’s face for emotion. Creativity had never been happier than at this moment that he was a well-practiced actor, as he schooled his features into a blank stare. 

The moral side stood awkwardly just inside the doorway as Creativity leaned back against the footboard of his bed. It gave him a twisted sense of satisfaction, knowing Patton was so uncomfortable in his presence. 

Patton inhaled sharply, eyes fixed firmly at Creativity’s feet. He kept his hands clasped tightly in front of him, knuckles white from his grip. “Before I saw anything else... I want to apologize for avoiding you for the past few weeks. I was so... confused. I didn’t know how to feel about what happened and I didn’t want to risk saying something that would hurt your feelings because I didn’t give myself time to think about it.”

Creativity crossed his arms, watching Patton’s face carefully. His left hand was still shaking, but he gripped his right arm hard to hide it. His nails were going to leave marks, but he didn’t particularly care. 

“It’s fine.” 

That wasn’t what Patton had wanted to hear, judging by how his face twisted in guilt. 

“It’s not like I don’t accept you! I just... we had watched you-- I mean, Remus just disappeared, and we didn’t know what happened, and then Roman collapsed and his outfit started turning completely black! And we couldn’t wake him up for hours! So... I was so relieved when I thought he’d come back... And when you told us that you weren’t him anymore... I... I didn’t know what to do.”

“So sorry to disappoint.” Creativity quipped sarcastically, rolling his eyes. 

Patton waved his hands wildly, trying to backpedal. “I didn’t mean... I’m happy you’re back to normal! I was just...” 

He blew out a breath, letting that sentence fall. “I guess that didn’t make you feel any better, did it?”

Finally, the walls Creativity had built up started to break and he sighed, letting his arms fall. “It’s ok, Patton. I get it. This whole thing has taken some adjustment from all of us.”

“Yes... but that’s only half of what I wanted to apologize for.”

“What... do you mean?”

Patton slowly took a breath, trying to calm his racing heart. “I... thought about what you said, and... you were right.”

Creativity narrowed his eyes. “About what?”

“... I was... the reason you two split in the first place... all those years ago... it was my fault.”

Patton forced his hands apart, reaching up to wrap his arms around himself. “I’ve always tried to protect Thomas... to make sure that he was doing the right thing. I thought... to be a good person, he had to have good thoughts as well... and that didn’t match up with reality...”

He was blinking rapidly now. “I really didn’t mean to cause harm! I never meant for you two to split into completely separate people! I just thought... it would be good if Thomas could keep better control of those thoughts...”

“Even after it happened, I should have treated you two the same, but I didn’t. I was selfish and I thought that this was the chance to... I don’t even know anymore! I don’t know what I was thinking!”

Patton was crying now. The tears flowed freely down his cheeks, and he made no move to stop them. “They cared so much for each other... but I was blind to it. I thought I knew better than you two on what Thomas wanted and needed! And in the process, I completely ruined your relationship!”

“I promise I didn’t mean to! I wasn’t as good at taking your feelings into account back then, and I know that’s no excuse and it doesn’t change what happened or make up for what I did but I just want you to know that I’m so, so sorry! And I understand if you hate me for it, but I just need you to know that I... I...”

He swallowed, breath hitching. He finally seemed to realize that there were tears running down his face as he roughly rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands. “I’m sorry, I promised myself I wouldn’t cry, this isn’t about me, this is about you and I have no right to cry about this at all! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”

Patton mumbled the two words over and over again. Creativity pushed himself to a standing position, gliding over to the moral side in two easy strides. Patton shut his eyes tight, bracing himself for whatever scathing comment Creativity would throw at him. Whatever it was, he would take it. He knew he deserved it. 

But Creativity didn’t say anything. Instead, he opened his arms and held Patton tightly in a hug that surprised him so much, it stopped his tears. Then, he heard three simple words whispered into his ear, and the floodgates opened stronger than ever. 

“I forgive you.”

Patton buried his face in Creativity’s shoulder, the fabric growing damp in seconds. He found he didn’t really care, holding the fatherly side until he stopped shaking and could form coherent thoughts. 

“You... you don’t have to, you know. You’re allowed to be mad at me for what happened.”

The creative side shook his head. “I don’t have time to be angry. You’re right, Patton. Your apology doesn’t change what happened. We still split, and spent years hating each other in part because we were forced apart.”

Patton bit his lip, but Creativity wasn’t finished. “It may not change the past, but we can change the future. But for that, I’m going to need your help.”

“O-Of course! Anything! What can I do?”

“To start, we need to allow Deceit and Obsession to join our discussions. Especially when it’s a topic that involves their influence.”

Patton froze. “Are... are you sure that’s really... what we need to do?”

Creativity huffed, stepping back and staring at Patton, crossing his arms. “Why not?”

The moral side opened his mouth to argue, but he paused. Deceit and Obsession were dark sides... but Remus had been too. But now, the side standing in front of him was a combination of the two. What did that make Creativity now?

The confliction was clear on his face. Creativity sighed. 

“I know you don’t like them. And I’m not asking you to suddenly be best friends with them. I wouldn’t expect you to. But... this whole mess just got worse when we decided that they were different from us somehow, and that it somehow made their opinions less than ours. I know it was Roman who came up with the name... but from now on, we’re not going to call them ‘Dark Sides.’ We’re all just... Thomas’s sides. Ok?”

Creativity watched the moral side carefully. His eyes were flitting back and forth, and he knew Patton wasn’t going to be easy to sway. It had been like this for so long, and the current status quo benefitted them. Why would he want it to change?

But Creativity wouldn’t take no for an answer. He remembered the pain of being alone, left to the wayside by everyone, even their host. Ignored when they only have good intentions to help. Desperately trying to get Thomas’s attention with wilder and wilder thoughts, because that was the only thing he reacted to. Knowing that they could never get accepted, so being feared would just have to do. 

“... I... I know you’re right. It’s not going to be easy... but I want to try. I want Thomas to be happy. And if you think that doing this will make him happy... then I’ll do my best.”

A wide grin broke onto Creativity’s face and he hugged Patton again, lifting him off the ground. 

“It will! I know it will! Thank you, Patton, thank you!”

Patton couldn’t help but giggle, hugging him back once Creativity set him back down. “Ok, ok! Careful, we don’t want to wake the other two!” Patton hushed through his laughter. Creativity nodded, holding a hand over his mouth. 

It was like the weight of the entire world had been lifted off his shoulders. He felt lighter than air, like the smallest hop would send him rocketing into the sky. When Patton let out a yawn, he excused himself from Creativity’s room.

“Sleep well, Creativity.”

“You too, Patton. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Creativity laid back on his bed, cradling his head with his arms. He hugged himself, drifting off to sleep with a gentle smile still fixed on his face. 

~~~

Several days later, the four sides stood in the living room, waiting for their cue to pop up into Thomas’s latest video. He was still setting up, but Creativity was already shaking with anticipation. 

He startled when he felt a hand on his arm, and Creativity glanced over to see Virgil staring at him with worry in his eyes. 

“Are you good with this? You know, we can always tell Thomas that you couldn’t make it, if you’re not ready...”

Creativity blinked, then shook his head. “No, I’m fine, I promise! Just, ah... pre-video jitters, that’s all!”

“There’s no reason to be nervous, Creativity. I’m certain that Thomas will accept your presence without issue.”

Virgil looked back and forth between Logan and Creativity. “Is... that what you’re worried about?”

Creativity cleared his throat. “Of course not! I mean, it would be ridiculous for him to throw me away, now that I’m together again... Right?” He ran his fingers through his hair, his bravado crumbling before their eyes. 

Logan shook his head. “No, he wouldn’t do that. It would be completely illogical for him to do so. His livelihood relies heavily on your influence. Ignoring you would mean he would need to completely change the course of his life and get a job that doesn’t involve creative thoughts in the slightest.”

“And Thomas doesn’t like drastic change.” Virgil added, rubbing his arms. 

Creativity sighed. “Right. But that doesn’t mean he’ll treat me the same as he treated Roman.”

Another hand rested gently on his shoulder, and Creativity looked back to see Patton smiling at him. 

“It’ll be ok. Thomas will accept you, because he’s the one who wanted you back like this in the first place.”

“W-What? What are you talking about, Thomas doesn’t even know what happened--”

Patton shook his head. “Maybe not, but everything we do is in some way influenced by what Thomas wants. If he really wanted to keep Roman and Remus as completely separate Creativities, then he would have.”

Then Patton took his hand and sandwiched it between his own, clasping it tightly. “But you’re here... and that means Thomas wants you here. Whether he realizes it or not!” 

Creativity felt a sudden tug in his gut, and the four of them looked up simultaneously. 

“Thomas is ready to start filming.” Logan observed. 

“Last chance. You’re scripted to rise up last - we could tell him you couldn’t make it.” Virgil offered. 

Creativity shook his head, rolling his shoulders back. “No. I’m ready. Whatever happens... I want Thomas to know about me.”

He felt three pairs of eyes watching him. He flashed them a wide smile, and Logan nodded after a moment. 

“Alright then.”

Then he was gone, risen up into the video. Virgil shot Creativity a wary smile before he was gone too, though he simply disappeared rather than faded like Logan did. 

“See you up there, kiddo?” 

Creativity nodded at Patton, who left him alone as he rose up. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before rising up himself. 

Show time. 

~~~

“What is up everybody!” Thomas grinned widely at the camera as he did his normal energetic intro. “Today’s video’s gonna be a little different! Over the past few weeks I’ve been feeling... pretty good! But also... really weird. So, I wanted to call everyone in and see what’s been going on in this mind of mine!” He put a finger to his temple, as if to point to his brain. 

“So, let’s go from right to left! Logan!”

The logical side rose up smoothly, nodding to his host. “Afternoon, Thomas.”

“Hey, Logan. So, I was wondering... did something... happen, recently? Like, in my mind.”

Logan pursed his lips. “Well, physically you’re perfectly healthy. Both your body and mind are in good condition. By all my accounts, you should be feeling fine.”

“Yeah, I’m doing alright in that department. But there’s something... different.”

Logan tilted his head. “If you’re worried about something, shouldn’t you be asking someone else about that?”

Thomas chuckled. “Yeah, guess you’re right. Ok, then. Virgil?”

He couldn’t help but jump slightly when the anxious side appeared. He didn’t know if he’d ever get used to how quickly he could pop into his thoughts.

“Sup, Thomas.” Virgil greeted, saluting him casually. 

“Hey Virge. Say, is there something you’ve been worried about lately? Like, more than just the usual stuff, I mean.”

Virgil shifted, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Um, I dunno... there’s not really anything stressful going on right now. In fact, you’ve been doing pretty good. Your latest videos have gotten really good feedback, you’re ahead on your projects and you’ve even got some more lined up when you finish the ones you have now. Things look good. You’re not gonna hear me complaining.”

Thomas narrowed his eyes. That wasn’t a very helpful answer. Logan hadn’t given him a proper response to his question either - he’d deflected it. He would suspect Deceit’s involvement, but it was both of them... 

Something was wrong. 

“Is there something you two aren’t telling me?”

The look Virgil and Logan shared, however brief, spoke volumes. They were lying to him! Or at least, they weren’t being honest. 

“Alright, fine, maybe Roman will give me a proper answer--”

“Hiya kiddo!” Patton interrupted, cheery as ever. 

“Patton? But I was calling Roman--”

“Huh? Oh, sorry, did I mess up the order? My bad!” Patton was chipper... almost unnaturally so. It reminded him of when Deceit had impersonated him... but that wasn’t it. He didn’t know how he knew... but he did. 

Thomas shrugged. Maybe Patton would tell him. 

“It’s alright, Patton, Hey, I’m curious...”

“Hi Curious, I’m Dad!” 

Thomas sighed. He should have seen that one coming. “Over the past few weeks, I’ve been feeling really off. I don’t know how to explain it, really; it wasn’t a _bad_ feeling, but it was... different.”

He saw Patton’s face shift, and the fatherly side laughed awkwardly. “Well, now that you mention it...”

“I knew it! Why are you guys trying to hide it from me?” Thomas looked between the three of them. Virgil sighed. 

“It’s not really our news to tell, Thomas.”

That only confused him more. “What? Is it something Deceit’s hiding from me? I thought he couldn’t do that if I told you I wanted to know!”

“Deceit doesn’t have anything to do with this, kiddo.”

“That who does?!”

“That would be me!”

Thomas whipped his head towards the corner of the room, where Roman had finally risen up. “Oh, Roman, you’re here! Thank goodness, everyone’s avoiding my questions. Please, do you know what’s been going on the past few weeks?”

“Since when did you ask Roman for updates?” The creative side snickered. Thomas blinked. Why was he referring to himself in third person?

On a similar note...

“What happened to your outfit?”

The side smiled, glancing around at the other three. “Don’t blame them, they were just trying to stall for me. It’s a pleasure to finally be able to meet you, Thomas. I’m looking forward to helping you.”

Thomas narrowed his eyes, taking a closer look at “Roman’s” outfit. It was gray, and he had a bright green sash tied around his waist. Not to mention the logo on his arm had completely changed. 

“You’re... not Roman.”

He shook his head, gaze soft. “No, not anymore... But... I hope that we can still be friends, even if I did take over his spot.”

“Who... who are you, then?” Thomas asked, watching Logan, Patton and Virgil for any sign of discomfort. His first thought was that this was Deceit, and he’d somehow convinced the others that nothing was wrong. But he quickly threw that thought away when he noticed the soft, genuine smiles the three of them were giving the new side. Patton was beaming brightly as the gray-clad side took a sweeping bow, then glanced up with a mischievous glint in his eyes. 

“Who, me? Why, it’s quite simple really.”

He stood up straight, holding his arms wide and flourishing his wrists. 

“I am Creativity!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's over. Over 30k words and nearly three months in the making.   
> I may have written it, but without @strickenwithclairvoyance on tumblr, this fic would have never been completely. I can say that with certainty. They call it peer pressure, I call it anticipation and encouragement. Either way, you should go show them some love. ILY Ell, you're the best <3


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